
Li B 102,2" 



Glass. 

Rnnk - ^-^ 2 

■ I SX'h 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/practicaleducati03edge 



/ 



PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 




MARIA EDGEWORTH, 

AUTHOR OF LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIES, AND THE PARENT^ 
ASSISTANT, &C. &C. 



RI^kARD L^ELL EDGE^ 

F.R.S. AND »fclKI.A3 



^ 

vS 



COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME, 



. 



BOSTON : 
SAMUEL H. PARKER, NO. 12, CORNHILL ; 

E. LITTELL, PHILADELPHIA AND TRENTON J R. NORRIS HENRY, 

129 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK J MUNROE AND FRANCES, 

NO. 4, CORNHILL, BOSTON. 

1823. 



LBl-OZf 



r>f>iij™**m , Vnrw till. 



PREFACE. 



We shall not imitate the invidious example of some 
authors, who think it necessary to destroy the edifices of 
others, in order to clear the way for their own. We have 
no peculiar system to support, and, consequently, we have 
no temptation to attack the theories of others ; and we have 
chosen the title of Practical Education, to point out that we 
rely entirely upon practice and experience. 

To make any progress in the art of education, it must 
be patiently reduced to an experimental science : we are 
fully sensible of the extent and difficulty of this undertak- 
ing, and we have not the arrogance to imagine, that we 
have made any considerable progress in a work, which the 
labours of many generations may, perhaps, be insufficient 
to complete ; but we lay before the publick the result of 
our experiments, and in many instances the experiments 
themselves. In pursuing this part of our plan, we have 
sometimes descended from that elevation of style, which 
the reader might expect in a quarto volume ; we have fre- 
quently been obliged to record facts concerning children 
which may seem trifling, and to enter into a minuteness of 
detail which may appear unnecessary. No anecdotes, how- 
ever,have been admitted without due deliberation ; nothing 
has been introduced to gratify the idle curiosity of others, 
or to indulge our own feelings of domestic partiality. 

In what we have written upon the rudiments of science, 
we have pursued an opposite plan ; so far from attempting 
to teach them in detail, we refer our readers to the excel- 
lent treatises on the different branches of science, and on 
the various faculties of the human mind, which are to be 
found in every language. The chapters that we have 



6#470 



IV TREFACE. 

introduced upon these subjects, are intended merely as 
specimens of the manner in which we think young children 
should be taught. We have found from experience, that 
an early knowledge of the first principles of science may 
be given in conversation, and may be insensibly acquired 
from the usual incidents of life : if this knowledge be care- 
fully associated with the technical terms which common 
use may preserve in the memory, much of the difficulty of 
subsequent instruction may be avoided. 

The sketches we have hazarded upon these subjects, may 
to some appear too slight, and to others too abstruse and 
tedious. To those who have explored the vast mines of 
human knowledge, small specimens appear irifling and 
contemptible, whilst the less accustomed eye is somewhat 
dazzled and confused by the appearance even of a small 
collection : but to the most enlightened minds, new combi- 
nations may be suggested by a new arrangement of mate- 
rials, and the curiosity and enthusiasm of the inexperienced 
may be awakened, and excited to accurate and laborious 
researches. 

With respect to what is commonly called the education 
of the heart, we have endeavoured to suggest the easiest 
means of inducing useful and agreeable habits, well regulat- 
ed sympathy and benevolent affections. A witty writer 
says, " II est permis d'ennuyer en moralites d'ici jusqu' a 
Constantinople." Unwilling to avail ourselves of this per- 
mission, we have sedulously avoided declamation, and, 
wherever we have been obliged to repeat ancient maxims, 
and common truths, we have at least thought it becoming 
to present them in a new dress. 

On religion and politics we have been silent, because we 
have no ambition to gain partisans, or to make proselytes, 
and because we do not address ourselves exclusively to 
any sect or to any party. The scrutinizing eye of criti- 
cism, in looking over our table of contents, will also, prob- 
ably, observe that there are no chapters on courage and 
chastity. To pretend to teach courage to Britons, would 



PREFACE. V 

be as ridiculous as it is unnecessary ; and, except amongst 
those who are exposed to the contagion of foreign manners, 
we may boast of the superior delicacy of our fair country- 
women ; a delicacy acquired from domestic example, and 
confirmed by public approbation. Our opinions concern- 
ing the female character and understanding, have been 
fully detailed in a former publication ;* and, unwilling to 
fatigue by repetition, we have touched but slightly upon 
these subjects in our chapters on Temper, Female Accom- 
plishments, Prudence, and Economy. 

We have warned our readers not to expect from us any 
new theory of education, but they need not apprehend that 
we have written without method, or that we have thrown 
before them a heap of desultory remarks and experiments, 
which lead to no general conclusions, and which tend to the 
establishment of no useful principles. We assure them that 
we have worked upon a regular plan, and where we have 
failed of executing our design, it has not been for want of 
labour or attention. Convinced that it is the duty and the in- 
terest of all who write, to inquire what others have said 
and thought upon the subject of which they treat, we have 
examined attentively the works of others, that we might 
collect whatever knowledge they contain, and that we might 
neither arrogate inventions which do not belong to us, nor 
weary the public by repetition. Some useful and ingenious 
essays may probably have escaped our notice ; but we flat- 
ter ourselves, that our readers will not find reason to ac- 
cuse us of negligence, as we have perused with diligent at- 
tention every work upon education, that has obtained the 
sanction of time or of public approbation, and, though we 
have never bound ourselves to the letter, we hope that we 
have been faithful to the spirit, of their authors. Without 
incumbering ourselves with any part of their systems which 
has not been authorized by experience, we have steadily 

* Letters for Literary Ladies. 



VI PREFACE. 



attempted immediately to apply to practice such of their 
ideas as we have thought useful; but whilst we have used 
the thoughts of others, we have been anxious to avoid 
mean plagiarism, and wherever we have borrowed, the debt 
has been carefully acknowledged. 

The first hint of the chapter on Toj's was received from 
Dr. Beddoes ; the sketch of an introduction to chemistry 
for children was given to us by Mr. Lovell Edgeworth ; 
and the rest of the work was resumed from a design form- 
ed and begun twenty years ago. When a book appears 
under the name of two authors, it is natural to inquire what 
share belongs to each of them. All that relates to the art 
of teaching to read in the chapter on Tasks, the chapters 
on Grammar and Classical Literature, Geography, Chro- 
nology, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Mechanics, were written 
by Mr. Edgeworth, and the rest of the book by Miss Edge- 
worth. She was encouraged and enabled to write upon 
this important subject, by having for many years before her 
eyes the conduct of a judicious mother in the education of 
a large family. The chapter on Obedience was written 
from Mrs. Edgeworth's notes, and was exemplified by her 
successful practice in the management of her children ; the 
whole manuscript was submitted to her judgment, and 
she revised parts of it in the last stage of a fatal disease. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter Page 

I. Toys . . . . . ."■;'. . .9 

II. Tasks 31 

III. On Mention 53 

IV. Servants . 80 

V. Acquaintance . 90 

VI. On Temper 102 

VII. On Obedience 113 

VIII. On Truth 124 

IX. On Rewards and Punishments . . 146 

X. On Sympathy and Sensibility . . .171 

XI. On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition . 193 

XII. Books . 204 

XIII. On Grammar and Classical Literature 246 

XIV. On Geography and Chronology, . . 265 
XV. On Arithmetic 269 

XVI. Geometry 282 

XVII. On Mechanics ..... 285 

XVIII. Chemistry 305 

XIX. On Publick and Private Education . 310 

XX. On Female Accomplishments, 8{c. . 323 

XXI. Memory and Invention . . . . 344 

XXII. Taste and Imagination . . . 374 

XXIII. Wit and Judgment . . , . 400 

XXIV. Prudence and Economy . . . 425 
XXV. Summary 439 

APPENDIX. 

JYotes, containing Conversations and Anecdotes 

of Children 451 



CHAPTER I. 



TOYS. 



44 Why don't you play with your playthings, my dear ? I 
am sure that I have bought toys enough for you ; why can't 
you divert yourself with them, instead of breaking them to 
pieces?" says a mother to her child, who stands idle and 
miserable, surrounded by disjointed dolls, maimed horses, 
coaches and one-horse chairs, without wheels, and a nameless 
wreck of gilded lumber. 

A child in this situation is surely more to be pitied than 
blamed ; for is it not vain to repeat, " Why don't you play 
with your playthings," unless they be such as he can play 
with, which is very seldom the case ; and is it not rather un- 
just to be angry with him for breaking them to pieces, when 
he can by no other device render them subservient to his 
amusement ? He breaks them, not from the love of mischief, 
but from the hatred of idleness ; either he wishes to see what 
his playthings are made of, and how they are made ; or, 
whether he can put them together again, if the parts be once 
separated. All this is perfectly innocent ; and it is a pity 
that his love of knowledge and his spirit of activity should be 
repressed by the undistinguishing correction of a nursery 
maid, or the unceasing reproof of a French governess. 

The more natural vivacity and ingenuity young people pos- 
sess, the less are they likely to be amused with the toys which 
are usually put into their hands. They require to have things 
which exercise their senses or their imagination, their imitative, 
and inventive powers. The glaring colours, or the gilding of 



10 FRAC'TICAI EDUCATION. 

toys, may catch the eye, and please for a few minutes, but un- 
less some use can be made of them, they will, and ought, to be 
soon discarded. A boy, who has the use of his limbs, and 
whose mind is untainted with prejudice, would, in all proba- 
bility, prefer a substantial cart, in which he could carry 
weeds, earth and stones, up and down hill, to the finest frail 
coach and six that ever came out of a toyshop : for what 
could he do with the coach after having admired, and sucked 
the paint, but drag it cautiously along the carpet of a draw- 
ing-room, watching the wheels, which will not turn, and seem- 
ing to sympathize with the just terrors of the lady and gentle- 
man within, who are certain of being overturned every five 
minutes ? When he is tired of this, perhaps, he may set about 
to unharness horses which were never meant to be unharness- 
ed ; or to currycomb their woollen manes and tails, which 
usually come off during the first attempt. 

That such toys are frail and useless, may, however, be 
considered as evils comparatively small : as long as the child 
has sense and courage to destroy the toys, there is no great 
harm done ; but, in general, he is taught to set a value upon 
them totally independent of all ideas of utility, or of any re- 
gard to his own real feelings. Either he is conjured to take 
particular care of them, because they cost a great deal of 
money ; or else he is taught to admire them as miniatures of 
some of the fine things on which fine people pride themselves : 
if no other bad consequence were to ensue, this single circum- 
stance of his being guided in his choice by the opinion of 
others is dangerous. Instead of attending to his own sensa- 
tions, and learning from his own experience, he acquires the 
habit of estimating his pleasures by the taste and judgment of 
those who happen to be near him. 

" I liked the cart best," says the boy, " but mamma 
and every body said that the coach was the prettiest ; so I 
chose the coach." — Shall we wonder if the same principle 
afterwards governs him in the choice of " the toys of age ?" 

A little girl, presiding at her baby tea-table, is pleased with 
the notion that she is like her mamma ; and, before she can 
have any idea of the real pleasures of conversation and socie- 
ty, she is confirmed in the persuasion, that tattling and visit- 
ing are some of the most enviable privileges of grown people ; 
a set of beings whom she believes to be in possession of all 
the sweets of happiness. 

Dolls, beside the prescriptive right of ancient usage, can 
boast of such an able champion in Rousseau, that it requires 
no common share of temerity to attack them. As far as they 
are the means of inspiring girls with a taste for neatness in 
dress, and with a desire to make those things for themselves, 
for which women are usually dependent upon milliners, we 



TOYS. 11 

must acknowledge their utility ; but a watchful eye should be 
kept upon the child, to mark the first symptoms of a love of 
finery and fashion. It is a sensible remark of a late female 
writer, that whilst young people work, the mind will follow 
the hands, the thoughts are occupied with trifles, and the in- 
dustry is stimulated by vanity. 

Our objections to dolls are offered with great submission 
and due hesitation. With more confidence we may venture 
to attack baby-houses ; an unfurnished baby-house might be 
a good toy, as it would employ little carpenters and seam- 
stresses to fit it up ; but a completely furnished baby-house 
proves as tiresome to a child, as a finished seat is to a young 
nobleman. After peeping, for in general only a peep can be 
had into each apartment, after being thoroughly satisfied that 
nothing is wanting, and that consequently there is nothing 
to be done, the young lady lays her doll upon the state bed, 
if the doll be not twice as large as the bed, and falls fast 
asleep in the midst of her felicity. 

Before dolls, baby-houses, coaches, and cups and saucers, 
there comes a set of toys, which are made to imitate the ac- 
tions of men and women, and the notes or noises of birds and 
beasts. Many of these are ingenious in their construction, 
and happy in their effect, but that effect unfortunately is tran- 
sitory. When the wooden woman has churned her hour in 
her empty churn ; when the stiff backed man has hammered 
or sawed till his arms are broken, or till his employers are 
ired ; when the^ilt lamb has ba-ad, the obstinate pig squeak- 
ed, and the provoking cuckoo cried cuck-oo, till no one in the 
house can endure the noise ; what remains to be done ? — Woe 
betide the unAicky little philosopher, who should think of en- 
quiring why the woman churned, or how the bird cried 
cuckoo ; for it is ten to one that in prosecuting such an enqui- 
ry, just when he is upon the eve of discovery, he snaps the 
wire, or perforates the bellows, and there ensue " a death- 
like silence, and a dread repose." 

The grief which is felt for spoiling a new plaything might 
he borne, if it were not increased, as it commonly is, by the 
reproaches of friends; much kind eloquence, upon these oc- 
casions, is frequently displayed, to bring the sufferer to a 
proper sense of his folly, till in due time the contrite corners 
of his mouth are drawn down, his wide eyes fill with tears, 
and, without knowing what he means, he promises never to 
be so silly any more. The future safety of his worthless 
playthings is thus purchased at the expense of his understand- 
ing, perhaps of his integrity : for children seldom scrupulous- 
ly adhere to promises, which they have made to escape from 
impending punishment. 



12 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

We have ventured to object to some fashionable toys ; 
we are bound at least to propose others in their place ; and 
we shall take the matter up soberly from the nursery. 

The first toys for infants should be merely such things 
as may be grasped without danger, and which might, by 
the difference of their sizes, invite comparison : round 
ivory or wooden sticks should be put into their little hands ; 
by degrees they will learn to lift them to their mouths, and 
they will distinguish their sizes : square and circular bits of 
wood, balls, cubes, and triangles, with holes of different sizes 
made in them, to admit the sticks, should be their playthings. 
No greater apparatus is necessary for the amusement of the 
first months of an infant's life. To ease the pain which* they 
feel from cutting teeth, infants generally carry to their mouths 
whatever they can lay their hands upon ; but they soon learn 
to distinguish those bodies which relieve their pain, from those 
which gratify their palate ; and, if they are left to themselves, 
they will always choose what is painted in preference to every 
thing else ; nor must we attribute the look of delight with which 
they seize toys that are painted red, merely to the pleasure 
which their eye takes in the bright colour, but to the love of 
the sweet taste which they suck from the paint. What injury 
may be done to the health by the quantity of lead which is 
thus swallowed, we will not pretend to determine, but we re- 
fer to a medical name of high authority* whose cautions 
probably will not be treated with neglect. To gratify the 
eye with glittering objects, if this be necessary, may be done 
with more safety by toys of tin and polisheairon : a common 
steel button is a more desirable plaything to a joung child than 
many expensive toys ; a few such buttons tied together, so as 
to prevent any danger of their being swallowed, would con- 
tinue for some time a source of amusement. 

When a nurse wants to please or to pacify a child, she 
stuns its ear with a variety of noises, or dazzles its eye with 
glaring colours or stimulating light. The eye and the ear are 
thus fatigued without advantage, and the temper is hushed 
to a transient calm by expedients, which in time must lose 
their effect, and which can have no power over confirmed fret- 
fulness. The pleasure of exercising their senses, is in itseli 
sufficient to children without any factitious stimulus, which 
only exhausts their excitability, and renders them incapable 
of being amused by a variety of common objects, which 
would naturally be their entertainment. We do not here speak 
of the attempts made to soothe a child who is ill ; " to charm 
the sense of pain," so far as it can be done by diverting the 
child's attention from his own sufferings to outward objects, is 
humane and reasonable, provided our compassion does not in- 

■ » i ■ i i , _ 

* Dr. Fothergill. 



Tth^s. 13 

duce in the child's mind the expectation of continual attend- 
ance, and that impatience of temper which increases bodily 
suffering. It would be in vain to read lectures on philosophy 
to a nurse, or to expect stoicism from an infant ; but, per- 
haps, where mothers pay attention themselves to their chil- 
dren, they will be able to prevent many of the consequences 
of vulgar prejudice and folly. A nurse's wish is to have as 
little trouble as possible with the child committed to her charge, 
and at the same time to flatter the mother, from whom she 
expects her reward. The appearance of extravagant fond- 
ness for the child, of incessant attention to its humour, and 
absurds submission to its caprices, she imagines to be the 
surestTnethod of recommending herself to favour. She is not 
to be imposed upon by the faint and affected rebukes of the 
fond mother, who exclaims, " Oh, nurse, indeed you do spoil 
that child sadly ! — Oh, nurse, upon my word, she governs 
you entirely ! — Nurse, you must not let her have her own 
way always. — Never mind her crying, 1 beg, nurse." — 
Nurse smiles, sees that she has gained her point, and prom- 
ises what she knows it is not expected she should perform. 
Now if, on the contrary, she perceived that the mother was 
neither to be flattered nor pleased by these means, one mo- 
tive for spoiling the child would immediately cease : another 
strong one would, it is true, still remain. A nurse wishes to 
save herself trouble, and she frequently consults her own 
convenience when she humours an infant. She hushes it to 
sleep, that she may leave it safely ; she stops it from crying, 
that she may not hear an irritating noise, that she may re- 
lieve herself as soon as possible from the painful weakness of 
compassion, or that she may avoid the danger of being inter- 
rogated by the family as to the cause of the disturbance. It 
is less trouble to her to yield to caprice and ill-humour than to 
prevent or cure it, or at least she thinks it is so. In reality it is 
not ; for an humoured child in time plagues its attendant infinite- 
ly more than it would have done with reasonable management. 
If it were possible to convince nurses of this, they would sac- 
rifice perhaps the convenience of a moment to the peace of 
future hours, and they would not be eager to quell one 
storm at the hazard of being obliged to endure twenty more 
boisterous ; the candle would then no more be thrust almost 
into the infant's eyes to make it take notice of the light 
through the mist of tears, the eternal bunch of keys would 
not dance and jingle at every peevish summons, nor would the 
roarings of passion be overpowered by insulting songs, or 
soothed by artful caresses ; the child would then be caressed 
and amused when he looks smiling and good-humoured, and 
all parties would be much happier. 

Practical education begins very early, even in the nursery. 
Without the mountebank pretence, that miracles can be per- 



14 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

formed by the turning of a straw, or the dictatorial anath- 
ematizing tone, which calls down vengeance upon those who 
do not follow to an iota the injunctions of a theorist, we may 
simply observe, that parents would save themselves a great 
deal of trouble, and their children some pain, if they would 
pay some attention to their early education. The temper ac- 
quires habits much earlier than is usually apprehended ; the 
first impressions which infants receive, and the first habits 
which they learn from their nurses, influence the temper and 
disposition long after the slight causes which produced them 
are forgotten. More care and judgment than usually fall to 
the share of a nurse are necessary, to cultivate the disposi- 
tion which infants show, to exercise their senses, so as neither 
to suffer them to become indolent and torpid from want of 
proper objects to occupy their attention, nor yet to exhaust 
their senses by continual excitation. . By ill timed restraints 
or injudicious incitements, the nurse frequently renders the 
child obstinate or passionate. An infant should never be in- 
terrupted in its operations; whilst it wishes to use its hands, 
we should not be impatient to make it walk ; or when it is 
pacing, with all the attention to its centre of gravity that is ex- 
erted by a rope-dancer, suddenly arrest its progress, and in- 
sist upon its pronouncing the scanty vocabulary which we 
have compelled it to learn. When children are busily trying 
experiments upon objects within their reach, we should not, 
by way of saving them trouble, break the course of their ideas, 
and totally prevent them from acquiring knowledge by their 
own experience. When a foolish nurse sees a child attempt- 
ing to reach or lift any thing, she runs immediately, " Oh, 
dear love, it can't do it, it can't ! — I'll do it for it, so I will !" — 
If the child be trying the difference between pushing and 
pulling, rolling or sliding, the powers of the wedge or the 
lever, the officious nurse hastens instantly to display her own 
knowledge of the mechanic powers : " Stay, love, stay ; that is 
not the way to do it — I'll show it the right way — see here — look 

at me, love." Without interrupting the child in the moment 

of action, proper care might be previously taken to remove out 
of its way those things which can really hurt it, and a just de- 
gree of attention must be paid to its first experiments upon hard 
and heavy, and more especially upon sharp, brittle, and 
burning bodies ; but this degree of care should not degene- 
rate into cowardice ; it is better that a child should tumble 
down or burn its fingers, than that it should not learn the use 
of its limbs and its senses. We should for another reason take 
care to put all dangerous things effectually out of the child's 
reach, instead of saying perpetually, " Take care, don't touch 
that ! — don't do that !— let that alone !" The child, who scarce- 
ly understands the words, and not at all the reason of these 



TOYS. 1 5 

prohibitions, is frightened by the tone and countenance with 
which they are uttered and accompanied ; and he either be- 
comes indolent or cunning; either he desists from exertion, 
or seizes the moment to divert himself with forbidden objects, 
when the watchful eye that guards them is withdrawn. It is 
in vain to encompass the restless prisoner with a fortification 
of chairs, and to throw him an old almanack to tear to pieces, 
or an old pincushion to explore ; the enterprising adventurer 
soon makes his escape from this barricado, leaves his goods 
behind him, and presently is again in what the nurse calls 
mischief. 

Mischief is with nurses frequently only another name for 
any species of activity which they find troublesome ; the love 
which children are supposed to have for putting things out of 
their places, is in reality the desire of seeing things in motion, 
or of putting things into different situations. They will like 
to put the furniture in a room in its proper place, and to ar- 
range every thing in what we call order, if we can make these 
equally permanent sources of active amusement ; but when 
things are once in their places, the child has nothing more to 
do, and the more quickly each chair arrives at its destined sit- 
uation, the sooner comes the dreaded state of idleness and 
quiet. 

A nursery, or a room in which young children are to live, 
should never have any furniture in it which they can spoil; as 
few things as possible should be left within their reach which 
they are not to touch, and at the same time they should be 
provided with the means of amusing themselves, not with 
painted or gilt toys, but with pieces of wood of various shapes 
and sizes, which they may build up and pull down, and put 
in a variety of different forms and positions ; balls, pulleys, 
wheels, strings, and strong little carts, proportioned to their 
age, and to the things which they want to carry in them, 
should be their play-things. 

Prints will be entertaining to children at a very early age ; 
it would be endless to enumerate the uses that may be made 
of them ; they teach accuracy of sight, they engage the at- 
tention, and employ the imagination. In 1777 we saw L — — , 
a child of two years old, point out every piece of furniture in 
the French prints of Gil Bias ; in the print of the Canon at 
Dinner, he distinguished the knives, forks, spoons, bottles, and 
every thing upon the table : the dog lying upon the mat, and 
the bunch of keys hanging at Jacintha's girdle ; he told, with 
much readiness, the occupation of every figure in the print, 
and could supply, from his imagination, what is supposed to 
be hidden by the foremost parts of all the objects. A child 
of four years old was asked, what was meant by something 
that was very indistinctly represented as hanging round the 



16 PRACTICAL JEUUCATION. 

arm of a figure in one of the prints of the London Cries. He 
said it was a glove ; though it had as little resemblance to a 
glove, as to a ribbon or a purse. When he was asked how 
he knew that it was a glove, he answered, " that it ought to be 
a glove, because the woman had one upon her other arm, and 
none upon that where the thing was hanging." Having seen 
the gown of a female figure in a print hanging obliquely, the 
same child said, " The wind blows that woman's gown back." 
We mention these little circumstances from real life, to show 
how early prints may be an amusement to children, and how 
quickly things unknown, are learnt by the relations which 
they bear to what was known before. We should at the 
same time observe, that children are very apt to make strange 
mistakes, and hasty conclusions, when they begin to reason 
from analogy. A child having asked what was meant by 
some marks in the forehead of an old man in a print ; and 
having been told, upon some occasion, that old people were 
wisei^ than young ones, brought a print containing several 
figures to his mother, and told her that one, which he pointed 
to, was wiser than all the rest ; upon inquiry, it was found that 
he had formed this notion from seeing that one figure was 
wrinkled, and that the others were not. 

Prints for children should be chosen with great care ; they 
should represent objects which are familiar ; the resemblances 
should be accurate, and the manners should be attended to, 
or at least, the general moral that is to be drawn from them. 
The attitude of Sephora, the boxing lady in Gil Bias, must 
appear unnatural to children who have not lived with terma- 
gant heroines. Perhaps, the first ideas of grace, beauty, and 
propriety, are considerably influenced by the first pictures and 
prints which please children. Sir Joshua Reynolds tells us, 
that he took a child with him through a room full of pictures, 
and that the child stopped, with signs of aversion, whenever 
it came to any picture of a figure in a constrained attitude. 

Children soon judge tolerably well of proportion in draw- 
ing, where they have been used to see the objects which are 
represented : but we often give them prints of objects, and of 
animals especially, which they have never seen, and in which 
no sort of proportion is observed. The common prints of an- 
imals must give children false ideas. The mouse and the 
elephant are nearly of the same size, and the crocodile and 
whale fill the same space in the page. Painters, who put 
figures of men amongst their buildings, give the idea of the 
proportionate height immediately to the eye : this is, perhaps, 
the best scale we can adopt ; in every print for children this 
should be attended to. Some idea of the relative sizes of the 
animals they see represented would then be given, and the 
imagination would not be filled with chimeras. 



TOYS. 17 

After having been accustomed to examine prints, and to 
trace their resemblance to real objects, children will proba- 
bly wish to try their own powers of imitation. At this mo- 
ment no toy, which we could invent for them, would give 
them half so much pleasure as a pencil. If we put a pencil 
into their hands even before they are able to do any thing 
with it but make random marks all over a sheet of paper, it 
will long continue a real amusement and occupation. No 
matter how rude their first attempts at imitation may be ; if 
the attention of children be occupied, our point is gained. 
Girls have generally one advantage at this age over boys, in 
the exclusive possession of the scissors : how many camels, 
and elephants with amazing trunks, are cut out by the indus- 
trious scissors of a busy, and therefore happy little girl, dur- 
ing a winter evening, which passes so heavily, and appears so 
immeasurably long, to the idle. 

Modelling in clay or wax might probably be a useful amuse- 
ment about this age, if the materials were so prepared, that 
the children could avoid being every moment troublesome to 
others whilst they are at work. The making of baskets, and 
the weaving of sash-line, might perhaps be employment for 
children ; with proper preparations, they might at least be 
occupied with these things ; much, perhaps, might not be 
produced by their labours, but it is a great deal to give early 
habits of industry. Let us do what we will, every person 
who has ever had any experience upon the subject, must 
know that it is scarcely possible to provide sufficient and suit- 
able occupations for young children : this is one of the first 
difficulties in education. Those who have never tried the 
experiment, are astonished to find it such a difficult and labo- 
rious business as it really is, to find employments for children 
from three to six years old. It is perhaps better, that our 
pupils should be entirely idle, than that they should be half 
employed. " My dear, have you nothing to do ?" should be 
spoken in sorrow rather than in anger. When they see other 
people employed and happy, children feel mortified and mis- 
erable to have nothing to do. Count Rumford's was an ex- 
cellent scheme for exciting sympathetic industry amongst the 
children of the poor at Munich ; in the large hall, where the 
elder children were busy in spinning, there was a range of 
seats for the younger children, who were not yet permitted to 
work ; these being compelled to sit idle, and to see the busy 
multitude, grew extremely uneasy in their own situation, and 
became very anxious to be employed. We need not use any 
compulsion or any artifice ; parents in every family, we sup- 
pose, who think of educating their own children, are employ- 
ed some hours in the day in reading, writing, business, or 



IS l'ltACTlCAL EDTJCATIOJT. 

conversation ; during these hours, children will naturally feel 
the want of occupation, and will, from sympathy, from ambi- 
tion, and from impatience of insupportable ennui, desire with 
anxious faces, " to have something to do."' Instead of load- 
ing them with playthings, by Avay of relieving their misery, 
we should honestly tell them, if that be the truth, " I am sor- 
ry I cannot find any thing for you to do at present. I hope 
you will soon be able to employ yourself. What a happy 
thing it will be for you to be able, by and by, to read, and 
write, and draw ; then you will never be forced to sit idle." 

The pains of idleness stimulate children to industry, if they 
are from time to time properly contrasted with the pleasures 
of occupation. We should associate cheerfulness, and praise, 
and looks of approbation, with industry ; and, whenever young 
people invent employments for themselves, they should be as- 
sisted as much as possible, and encouraged. At that age 
when they are apt to grow tired in half an hour of their play- 
things, we had better give them playthings only for a very 
short time, at intervals in the day ; and, instead of waiting 
till they are tired, we should take the things away before 
they are weary of them. Nor should we discourage the in- 
quisitive genius from examining into the structure of their 
toys, whatever they may be. The same ingenious and active 
dispositions, which prompt these enquiries, will secure chil- 
dren from all those numerous temptations to do mischief, to 
which the idle are exposed. Ingenious children are pleased 
with contrivances which answer the purposes for which they 
are intended : and they feel sincere regret whenever these 
are injured or destroyed : this we mention as a further com- 
fort and security for parents, who, in the company of young 
mechanics, are apt to tremble for their furniture. Children 
who observe, and who begin to amuse themselves with thought, 
are not so actively hostile in their attacks upon inanimate ob- 
jects. We were once present at the dissection of a wooden 
cuckoo, which was attended with extreme pleasure by a large 
family of children ; and it was not one of the children who 
broke the precious toy, but it was the father who took it to 
pieces. Nor was it the destruction of the plaything which en- 
tertained the company, but the sight of the manner in which 
it was constructed. Many guesses were made by all the 
spectators about the internal structure of the cuckoo, and the 
astonishment of the company was universal, when the bel- 
lows were cut open, and the simple contrivance was revealed 
to view ; probably, more was learnt from this cuckoo, than 
was ever learnt from any cuckoo before. So far from being 
indifferent to the destruction of this plaything, H — the little 
girl of four years old, to whom it belonged, remembered, sev- 
eral months afterwards, to remind her father of his promise 
to repair the mischief he had done. 



TOYS. 19 

" Several toys, which are made at present, are calculated 
to give pleasure merely by exciting surprise, and of course 
give children's minds such a tone, that they are afterwards 
too fond of similar useless baubles."* This species of delight is 
soon over, and is succeeded by a desire to triumph in the ig- 
norance, the credulity, or the cowardice, of their companions. 
Hence that propensity to play tricks, which is often injudi- 
ciously encouraged by the smiles of parents, who are apt to 
mistake it for a proof of wit and vivacity. They forget, 
that " gentle dullness ever lov'd a joke ;" and that even wit 
and vivacity, if they become troublesome and mischievous, 
will be feared and shunned. Many juggling tricks and puz- 
zles are highly ingenious ; and, as far as they can exercise 
the invention or the patience of young people, they are useful. 
Care, however, should be taken to separate the ideas of de- 
ceit and of ingenuity, and to prevent children from glorying 
in the mere possession of a secret. 

Toys which afford trials of dexterity and activity, such as 
tops, kites, hoops, balls, battledores and shuttlecocks, nine- 
pins, and cup-and-ball are excellent ; and we see that they 
are consequently great and lasting favourites with children ; 
their senses, their understanding, and their passions, are all 
agreeably interested and exercised by these amusements, 
They emulate each other ; but, as some will probably excel 
at one game, and some at another, this emulation will not de- 
generate into envy. There is more danger that this hateful pas- 
sion should be created in the minds of young competitors at those 
games, where it is supposed that some knack or mystery is to be 
learned before they can be played with success. Whenever 
children play at such games, we should point out to them 
how and why it is that they succeed or fail ; we may show 
them, that in reality, there is no knack or mystery in any 
thing, but that from certain causes certain effects will follow ; 
that, after trying a number of experiments, the circumstances 
essential to success may be discovered ; and that all the ease 
and dexterity, which we often attribute to the power of natu- 
ral genius, is simply the consequence of practice and industry. 
This sober lesson may be taught to children without putting 
it into grave words or formal precepts. A gentleman once as- 
tonished a family of children by his dexterity in playing at 
bilboquet : he caught the ball nine or ten times successively 
with great rapidity upon the spike : this success appeared mi- 
raculous ; and the father, who observed that it had made a 
great impression upon the little spectators, took that opportu- 
nity to shew the use of spinning the ball, to make the hole at 



Dr. Beddoes. 



20 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

the bottom ascend in a proper direction. The nature of cen- 
trifugal motion, and its effect in preserving the paralellism of 
motion, if we may be allowed the expression, was explained, 
not at once, but at different intervals, to the young audience. 
Only as much was explained at a time as the children could 
understand, without fatiguing their attention, and the abstruse 
subject was made familiar by the mode of illustration that 
was adopted. 

It is surprising how much children may learn from their 
playthings^ when they are judiciously chosen, and when the 
habit of reflection and observation is associated with the ideas 
of amusement and happiness. A little boy of nine years old, 
who had had a hoop to play with, asked why a hoop, or a plate, 
if rolled upon its edge, keeps up as long as it rolls, but falls as 
soon as it stops, and will not stand if you try to make it stand 
still upon its edge ?" Was not the boy's understanding as well 
employed whilst he was thinking of this phenomenon, which 
he observed whilst he was beating his hoop, as it could pos- 
sibly have been by the most learned preceptor ? 

When a pedantic schoolmaster sees a boy eagerly watch- 
ing a paper kite, he observes, " What a pity it is that chil- 
dren cannot be made to mind their grammar as well as their 
kites !" And he adds, perhaps some peevish ejaculation on 
the natural idleness of boys, and that pernicious love of play 
against which he is doomed to wage perpetual war. A man 
of sense will see the same thing with a different eye ; in this 
pernicious love of play he will discern the symptoms of a love 
of science, and, instead of deploring the natural idleness of 
children, he will admire the activity which they display in the 
pursuit of knowledge. He will feel that it his business to di- 
rect this activity, to furnish his pupil with materials for fresh 
combinations, to put him or to let him put himself, in situations 
where he can make useful observations, and acquire that ex- 
perience which cannot be bought, and which no masters can 
communicate. 

It will not be beneath the dignity of a philosophic tutor to 
consider the different effects, which the most common plays 
of children have upon the habits of the understanding and 
temper. Whoever has watched children putting together a 
dissected map, must have been amused with the trial between 
Wit and Judgment. The child, who quickly perceives resem- 
blances, catches instantly at the first bit of the wooden map, 
that has a single hook or hollow that seems likely to answer 
his purpose ; he makes, perhaps, twenty different trials be- 
fore he hits upon the right ; whilst the wary youth, who has 
been accustomed to observe differences, cautiously examines 
with his eye the whole outline before his hand begins to 
move ; and, having exactly compared the two indentures, he 



TOYS. 21 

joins them with sober confidence, more proud of never dis- 
gracing his judgment by a fruitless attempt, than ambitious of 
rapid success. He is slow, but sure, and wins the day. 

There are some plays which require presence of mind, 
and which demand immediate attention to what is actually 
going forward, in which children, capable of the greatest de- 
gree of abstract attention, are most apt to be defective. 
They have many ideas, but none of them ready, and their 
knowledge is useless, because it is recollected a moment too 
late. Could we, in suitably dignified language, describe the 
game of "birds, beasts, and fishes," we should venture to 
prescribe it as no very painful remedy for these absent and 
abstracted personages. When the handkerchief or the ball 
is thrown, and when his bird's name is called for, the absent 
little philosopher is obliged to collect his scattered thoughts 
instantaneously, or else he exposes himself to the ridicule of 
naming, perhaps, a fish or a beast, or any bird but the right. 
To those children, who, on the contrary, are not sufficiently 
apt to abstract their attention, and who are what Bacon calls 
" birdwitted," we should recommend a solitary-board. At 
the solitary-board they must withdraw their thoughts from all 
external objects, hear nothing that is said, and fix their atten- 
tion solely upon the figure and the pegs before them, else 
they will never succeed ; and, if they make one error in their 
calculations, they lose all their labour. Those who are pre- 
cipitate, and not sufficiently attentive to the consequences of 
their own actions, may receive many salutary lessons at the 
draught or chess-board — happy, if they can learn prudence 
and foresight, by frequently losing the battle. 

We are not quite so absurd as to imagine, that any great or 
permanent effects can be produced by such slight causes as 
a game at draughts, or at a solitary-board, but the combination 
of a number of apparent trifles, is not to be neglected in edu- 
cation. 

We have never yet mentioned what will probably first oc- 
cur to those who would invent employments for children. We 
have never yet mentioned a garden ; we have never mention- 
ed those great delights to children, a spade, a hoe, a rake, and 
a wheelbarrow. We hold all these in proper respect ; but 
we did not sooner mention them, because, if introduced too 
early, they are useless. We must not expect, that a boy six 
or seven years old, can find, for any length of time, sufficient 
daily occupation in a garden : he has not strength for hard 
labour ; he can dig soft earth ; he can weed groundsel, and 
other weeds, which take no deep root in the earth ; but after 
he has weeded his little garden, and sowed his seeds, there 
must be a suspension of his labours. Frequently children, 
for want of something to do, when they have sowed flower- 



PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



seeds in their crooked beds, dig up the hopes of the year to 
make a new walk, or to sink a well in their garden. We men- 
tion these things, that parents may not be disappointed, or 
expect more from the occupation of a garden, than it can, at 
a very early age, afford. A garden is an excellent resource 
for children, but they should have a variety of other occupa- 
tions : rainy days will come, and frost and snow, and then 
children must be occupied within doors. We immediately 
think of a little set of carpenter's tools, to supply them with 
active amusement. Boys will probably be more inclined to 
attempt making models, than drawings of the furniture which 
appears to be the most easy to imitate ; they will imagine that, 
if they had but tools, they could make boxes, and desks, and 
beds, and chests of drawers, and tables and chairs innumerable. 
But, alas ! these fond imaginations are too soon dissipated. 
Suppose a boy of seven years old to be provided with a small 
set of carpenter's tools, his father thinks perhaps that he has 
made him completely happy; but a week afterwards the 
father finds dreadful marks of the file and saw upon his ma- 
hogany tables ; the use of these tools is immediately inter- 
dicted until a bench shall be procured. Week after week 
passes away, till at length the frequently reiterated speech of 
" Papa, you bid me put you in mind about my bench." 
" Papa" has its effect, and the bench appears. Now the 
young carpenter thinks he is quite set up in the world, and 
projects carts and boxes, and reading-desks and writing-desks 
for himself and for his sisters, if he have any; but when he 
comes to the execution of his plans, what new difficulties, what 
new wants arise ; the wood is too thick or too thin ; it splits, or 
it cannot be cut with a knife ; wire, nails, glue, and above all, 
the means of heating the glue, are wanting. At last some frail 
machine, stuck together with pegs or pins, is produced, and the 
workman is usually either too much ridiculed, or too much ad- 
mired. The step from pegging to mortising is a very difficult 
step, and the want of a mortising-chisel is insuperable : one 
tool is called upon to do the duty of another, and the pricker 
comes to an untimely end in doing the hard duty of the 
punch ; the saw wants setting ; the plane will plane no longer ; 
and the mallet must be used instead of the hammer, because 
the hammer makes so much noise, that the ladies of the fami- 
ly have voted for its being locked up. To all these various 
evils the child submits in despair ; and finding, after many 
fruitless exertions, that he cannot make any of the fine things 
he had projected, he throws aside his tools, arid is deterred 
by these disappointments from future industry and ingenuity. 
Such are the consequences of putting excellent tools into the 
hands of children before they can possibly use them : but the 



toys. 23 

tools which are useless at seven years old, will be a most 
valuable present at eleven or twelve, and for this age it will 
be prudent to reserve them. A rational toy-shop should be 
provided with all manner of carpenter's tools, with wood pro- 
perly prepared for the young workman, and with screws, nails, 
glue, emery-paper, and a variety of articles which it would be 
tedious to enumerate ; but which, if parents could readily 
meet within a convenient assemblage, they would willingly 
purchase for their children. The trouble of hunting through 
a number of different shops, prevents them at present from 
purchasing such things ; besides, they may not perhaps be 
sufficiently good carpenters to know distinctly every thing 
that is necessary for a young workman. 

Card, pasteboard, substantial but not sharp-pointed scissors, 
wire, gum and wax, may, in some degree, supply the want 
of carpenter's" tools at that early age when we have ob- 
served that the saw and plane are useless. Models of com- 
mon furniture should be made as toys, which should take to 
pieces, so that all their parts, and the manner in which they 
are put together, might be seen distinctly ; the name of the 
different parts should be written* or stamped upon them : hy 
these means the names will be associated with realities ; chil- 
dren will retain them in their memory, and they will neither 
learn by rote technical terms, nor will they be retarded in 
their progress in mechanical invention by the want of language. 
Before young people can use tools, these models will amuse 
and exercise their attention. From models of furniture we 
may go on to models of architecture ; pillars of different or- 
ders, the roofs of houses, the manner of slating and tiling, &c. 
Then we may proceed to models of machines, choosing at 
first such as can be immediately useful to children in their 
own amusements, such as wheelbarrows, carts, cranes, scales, 
steelyards, jacks, and pumps, which children ever view with 
eager eyes. 

From simple, it will be easy to proceed gradually to models 
of more complicated, machinery : it would be tiresome to 
give a list of these ; models of instruments used by manufac- 
turers and artists should be seen ; many of these are extreme- 
ly ingenious ; spinning-wheels, looms, paper-mills, wind-mills, 
water-mills, might with great advantage be shown in minia- 
ture to children. 

The distracting noise and bustle, the multitude of objects 
which all claim the attention at once, prevent young people 
from understanding much of what they see, when they are 
first taken to look at large manufactories. If they had pre- 



We are indebted to Dr. Beddocs for this idea. 



24 PRACTICAL EDUCATION". 

viously acquired some general idea of the whole, and some 
particular knowledge of the different parts, they would not 
stare when they get into these places; they would not 
" stare round, see nothing, and come home content," bewil- 
dered by the sight of cogs and wheels ; and the explanations 
of the workmen would not be all jargon to them ; they would 
understand some of the technical terms, which so much alarm 
the intellects of those who hear them for the first time. 

We may exercise the ingenuity and judgment of children 
by these models of machines, by showing them first the thing 
to be done, and exciting them to invent the best means of do- 
ing it ; afterwards give the models as the reward for their in- 
genuity, and let them compare their own inventions with the 
contrivances actually in use amongst artificers ; by these 
means, young people may be led to compare a variety of dif- 
ferent contrivances ; they will discern what parts of a ma- 
chine are superfluous, and what inadequate, and they will 
class particular observations gradually under general princi- 
ples. Tt may be thought, that this will tend to give children 
only mechanical invention, or we should call it, perhaps, the 
invention of machines ; and those who do not require this 
particular talent, will despise it as unnecessary in what are 
called the liberal professions. Without attempting to com- 
pare the value of different intellectual talents, we may ob- 
serve, that they are all in some measure dependent upon each 
other. Upon this subject we shall enlarge more fully whea 
we come to consider the method of cultivating the memory 
and invention. 

Chemical toys will be more difficult to manage than me- 
chanical, because the materials, requisite to try many chem- 
ical experiments, are such as cannot safely be put into the 
hands of children. But a list of experiments, and of the 
things necessary to try them, might easily be drawn out by a 
chemist who would condescend to such a task ; and if these 
materials, with proper directions, were to be found at a ration- 
al toy-shop, parents would not be afraid of burning or poison- 
ing their children in the first chemical lessons. In some fam- 
ilies, girls are taught the confectionary art ; might not this be 
advantageously connected with some knowledge of chemistry, 
and might not they be better taught than by Mrs. Raffeld or 
Mrs. Glass ?* Every culinary operation may be performed 
as an art, probably, as well by a cook as by a chemist ; but, 
if the chemist did not assist the cook now and then with a 
little science, epicures would have great reason for lamenta- 
tion. We do not, by any means, advise that girls should be 



We do not mean to do injustice to Mrs. Raffeld's professional skill. 



TOYS. 25 

instructed in confectionary arts, at the hazard of their keep 
ing company with servants. If they learn any thing of this 
sort, there will be many precautions necessary to separate 
them from servants : we do not advise that these hazards 
should be run ; but if girls learn confectionary, let them learn 
the principles of chemistry, which may assist in this art.* 

Children are very fond of attempting experiments in dyeing, 
and are very curious about vegetable dyes ; but they can 
seldom proceed for want of the means of boiling, evaporating, 
distilling, and subliming. Small stills, and small tea-kettles 
and lamps, would be extremely useful to them : these might 
be used in the room with the children's parents, which would 
prevent all danger : they should continue to be the property 
of the parents, and should be produced only when they are 
wanted. No great apparatus is necessary for showing chil- 
dren the first simple operations in chemistry : such as evapo- 
ration, crystallization, calcination, detonation, effervescence, 
and saturation. Water and fire, salt and sugar, lime and vine- 
gar, are not very difficult to be procured ; and a wine-glass is 
to be found in every house. The difference between an acid 
and alkali should be early taught to children ; many grown 
people begin to learn chemistry, without distinctly knowing 
what is meant by those terms. 

In the selection of chemical experiments for young people, 
it will be best to avoid such as have the appearance of jug- 
glers' tricks, as it is not our purpose to excite the amazement 
of children for the moment, but to give them a permanent taste 
for science. In a well known book, called " Hooper's Ration- 
al Recreations" there are many ingenious experiments ; but 
through the whole work there is such a want of an enlarged 
mind, and such a love of magic and deception appears, as 
must render it not only useless, but unsafe, for young people, 
in its present state. Perhaps a selection might be made from 
it in which these defects might be avoided : such titles as 
" The real apparition: the confederate counters: the Jive beati- 
tudes : and the book of fate" may be changed for others more 
rational. Receipts for " Changing winter into spring" for 
making " Self-raising pyramids, enchanted mirrors, and intelli- 
gent flies" might be omitted, or explained to advantage. Rec- 
reation the 5th, " To tell by the dial of a watch at what hour 
any person intends to rise;" Recreation the 12th, " To pro- 
duce the appearance of a phantom on a pedestal placed on 
the middle of a table ;" and Recreation the 30th, " To write 
several letters which contain no meaning, upon cards ; to make 
them, after they have been twice shuffled, give an answer to a 



* V. Diderot's ingenious preface to " Chymie de gout etde I'odorat." 
4 



26 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

question that shall be proposed ;" as for example, " What is 
love ?" scarcely come under the denomination of Rational Rec- 
reations, nor will they much conduce to the end proposed in 
the introduction to Hooper's work ; that is to say, in his own 
words, " To enlarge and fortify the mind of man, that he 
may advance with tranquil steps through the flowery paths of 
investigation, till arriving at some noble eminence, he beholds, 
with awful atonishment, the boundless regions of science, and 
becomes animated to attain a still more lofty station, whilst his 
heart is incessantly rapt with joys of which the grovelling herd 
have no conception." 

Even in those chemical experiments in this book, which 
are really ingenious and entertaining, we should avoid giving 
the old absurd titles, which can only confuse the understand- 
ing, and spoil the taste of children. The tree of Diana, and 
" Philosophic wool," are of this species. It is not necessary 
to make every thing marvellous and magical, to fix the atten- 
tion of young people ; if they are properly educated, they 
will find more amusement in discovering, or in searching for 
the cause of the effects which they see, than in a blind admi- 
ration of the juggler's tricks. 

In the papers of the Manchester Society, in Franklin's let- 
ters, in Priestley's and Percival's works, there may be found 
a variety of simple experiments which require no great appa- 
ratus, and which will at once amuse and instruct. All the 
papers of the Manchester Society, upon the repulsion and at- 
traction of oil and water, are particularly suited to children, 
because they state a variety of simple facts ; the mind is led 
to reason upon them, and induced to judge of the different 
conclusions which are drawn from them by different people. 
The names of Dr. Percival, or Dr. Wall, will have no weight 
with children ; they will compare only the reasons and ex- 
periments. Oil and water, a cork, a needle, a plate, and a 
glass tumbler, are all the things necessary for these experi- 
ments. Mr. Henry's experiments upon the influence that 
fixed air has on vegetation, and several of Reaumur's experi- 
ments, mentioned in the memoirs of the French Academy of 
Sciences, are calculated to please young people much, and 
can be repeated without expense or difficulty. 

To those who acquire habits of observation, every thing 
that is to be seen or heard, becomes a source of amusement. 
Natural history interests children at an early age ; but their 
curiosity and activity is often repressed and restrained by the 
ignorance or indolence of their tutors. The most inquisitive 
genius grows tired of repeating, " Pray look at this — What is 
it ? What can the use of this be ?" when the constant answer 
is, " Oh ! it's nothing worth looking at, throw it away, it will 
dirty the house." Those who have attended to the ways of 



TOTS. 27 

children and parents, well know that there are many little in- 
conveniences attending their amusements, which the sublime 
eye of the theorist in education overlooks, which, neverthe- 
less, are essential to practical success. " It will dirty the 
house," puts a stop to many of the operations of the young 
philosopher ; nor is it reasonable that his experiments should 
interfere with the necessary regularity of a well ordered fami- 
ly. But most well ordered families allow their horses and 
their dogs to have houses to themselves ; cannot one room be 
allotted to the children of the family ? If they are to learn 
chemistry, mineralogy, botany, or mechanics 5 if they are to 
take sufficient bodily exercise without tormenting the whole 
family with noise, a room should be provided for them. We 
mention exercise and noise in particular, because we think 
they will, to many, appear of the most importance. 

To direct children in their choice of fossils, and to give 
them some idea of the general arrangements of mineralogy, 
toy-shops should be provided with specimens of ores, &c. 
properly labelled and arranged, in drawers, so that they may 
be kept in order. Children should have empty shelves in 
their cabinets, to be filled with their own collections ; they 
will then know how to direct their researches, and how to 
dispose of their treasures. If they have proper places to 
keep things in, they will acquire a taste for order by the best 
means, by feeling the use of it : to either sex, this taste will 
be highly advantageous. Children who are active and indus- 
trious, and who have a taste for natural history, often collect, 
with much enthusiasm, a variety of pebbles and common 
stones, which they value as great curiosities, till some surly 
mineralogist happens to see them, and condemns them all 
with one supercilious " pshaw !" or else a journey is to be 
taken, and there is no way in making up the heterogeneous, 
cumbersome collection, which must, of course, be abandoned. 
Nay, if no journey is to be taken, a visitor, perhaps, comes 
unexpectedly ; the little naturalist's apartment must be vaca- 
ted on a few minutes notice, and the labour of years falls a 
sacrifice, in an instant, to the housemaid's undistinguishing 
-broom. 

It may seem trifling to insist so much upon such slight 
things, but, in fact, nothing can be done in education without 
attention to minute circumstances. Many who have genius 
to sketch large plans, have seldom patience to attend to the 
detail which is necessary for their accomplishment. This is 
a useful, and, therefore, no humiliating drudgery. 

With the little cabinets, which we have mentioned, should 
be sold cheap microscopes, which will unfold a world of new 
delights to children ; and it is very probable that children 
will not only be entertained with looking at objects through a 



28 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

microscope, but they will consider the nature of the magnify- 
ing glass. They should not be rebuffed with the answer, 
" Oh, it's only a common magnifying glass," but they should 
be encouraged in their laudable curiosity ; they may easily 
be led to try slight experiments in optics, which will, at least, 
give the habits of observation and attention. In Dr. Priest- 
ley's History of Vision, many experiments may be found, 
which are not above the comprehension of children of ten or 
eleven years old ; we do not imagine that any science can be 
taught by desultory experiments, but we think that a taste for 
science may early be given by making it entertaining, and by 
exciting young people to exercise their reasoning and inven- 
tive faculties upon every object which surrounds them. We 
may point out that great discoveries have often been made by 
attention to slight circumstances. The blowing of soap bub- 
bles, as it was first performed as a scientific experiment b}' - 
the celebrated Dr. Hook, before the Royal Society, makes a 
conspicuous figure in Dr. Priestley's chapter on the reflection 
of light ; this may be read to children, and they will be pleas- 
ed when they observe that what at first appeared only a tri- 
fling amusement, has occupied the understanding, and excited 
the admiration, of some great philosophers. 

Every child observes the colours which are to be seen in 
panes of glass windows : in Priestley's History of Vision, 
there are some experiments of Hook's and Lord Brereton's 
upon these colours, which may be selected. Buffon's obser- 
vations upon blue and green shadows, are to be found in the 
same work, and they are very entertaining. In Dr. Frank- 
lin's letters, there are numerous experiments, which are par- 
ticularly suited to young people ; especially, as in every in- 
stance he speaks w T ith that candour and openness to convic- 
tion, and with that patient desire to discover truth, which we 
should wish our pupils to admire and imitate. 

The history of the experiments w r hich have been tried in 
the progress of any science, and of the manner in which ob- 
servations of minute facts have led to great discoveries, will 
be useful to the understanding, and will gradually make the 
mind expert in that mental algebra, on which both reasoning 
and invention (which is, perhaps, only a more rapid species 
of reasoning) depend. In drawing out a list of experiments 
for children, it will, therefore, be advantageous to place them 
in that order which will best exhibit their relative connec- 
tion ; and, instead of showing } r oung people the steps of a dis- 
covery, we should frequently pause to try if they can invent. 
In this, our pupils will succeed often beyond our expecta- 
tions ; and, whether it be in mechanics, chemistrjr, geometry, 
or in the arts, the same course of education will be found to 
have the same advantages. When the powers of reason have 



TOYS. 29 

been cultivated, and the inventive faculty exercised ; when 
general habits of voluntary exertion and patient perseverance, 
have been acquired, it will be easy, either for the pupil him- 
self, or for his friends, to direct his abilities to whatever is ne- 
cessary for his happiness. We do not use the phrase, success 
in the world, because, if it conveys any distinct ideas, it implies 
some which are, perhaps, inconsistent with real happiness. 

Whilst our pupils occupy and amuse themselves with ob- 
servation, experiment, and invention, we must take care that 
they have a sufficient variety of manual and bodily exercises. 
A turning-lathe, and a work-bench, will afford them constant 
active employment ; and when young people can invent, they 
feel great pleasure in the execution of their own plans. We 
do not speak from vague theory ; we have seen the daily 
pleasures of the work-bench, and the persevering eagerness 
with which young people work in wood, and brass, and iron, 
when tools are put into their hands at a proper age, and when 
their understanding has been previously taught the simple 
principles of mechanics. It is not to be expected that any 
exhortations we could use, could prevail upon a father, who 
happens to have no taste for mechanics, or for chemistry, to 
spend any of his time in his children's laboratory, or at their 
work-bench ; but in his choice of a tutor, he may perhaps 
supply his own defects; and he will consider, that even by 
interesting himself in the daily occupations of his children, he 
will do more in the advancement of their education, than can 
be done by paying money to a hundred masters. 

We do not mean to confine young people to the laboratory 
or the work-bench, for exercise ; the more varied exercises, 
the better. Upon this subject we shall speak more fully here- 
after: we have in general recommended all trials of address 
and dexterity, except games of chance, which we think should 
be avoided, as they tend to give a taste for gambling ; a pas- 
sion, which has been the ruin of so many young men of pro- 
mising talents, of so many once happy families, that every 
parent will think it well worth his while to attend to the small- 
est circumstances in education, which can prevent its seizing 
hold of the minds of his children. 

In children, as in men, a taste for gaming arises from the 
want of better occupation, or of proper emotion to relieve 
them from the pains and penalties of idleness ; both the vain 
and indolent are prone to this taste from different causes. 
The idea of personal merit is insensibly connected with what 
is called good luck, and before avarice absorbs every other 
feeling, vanity forms no inconsiderable part of the charm 
which fixes such numbers to the gaming-table. Indolent per- 
sons are fond of games of chance, because they feel them- 
selves roused agreeably from their habitual state of apathy, 



30 Practical education. 

or because they perceive, that, at these contests, without any 
menial exertion, they are equal, perhaps superior, to their 
competitors. 

Happy they, who have early been inspired with a taste for 
science and literature ! They will have a constant succession 
of agreeable ideas ; they will find endless variety in the com- 
monest objects which surround them ; and feeling that every 
day of their lives they have sufficient amusement, they will 
require no extraordinary excitations, no holiday pleasures. 
They who have learnt, from their own experience, a just con- 
fidence in their own powers ; they who have tasted the de- 
lights of well-earned praise, will not lightly trust to chance, for 
the increase of self-approbation ; nor will those pursue, with 
too much eagerness, the precarious triumphs of fortune, who 
know, that in their usual pursuits, it is in their own power to 
command success proportioned to their exertions. Perhaps it 
may be thought, that we should have deferred our eulogium 
upon literature till we came to speak of Tasks ; but if there 
usually appears but little connection in a child's mind, between 
books and toys, this must be attributed to his having had bad 
books and bad toys. In the hands of a judicious instructor, 
no means are too small to be useful ; every thing is made con- 
ducive to his purposes, and instead of useless baubles, his 
pupils will be provided with playthings which may instruct, 
and with occupations which may at once amuse and improve 
the understanding. 

It would be superfluous to give a greater variety of instan- 
ces of the sorts of amusements which are advantageous ; we 
fear that we have already given too many, and that we have 
hazarded some observations, which will be thought too pom- 
pous for a chapter upon Toys. We intended to have added 
to this chapter an inventory of the present most fashionable 
articles in our toy-shops, and a list of the nezo assortment, to 
speak in the true style of an advertisement; but we are 
obliged to defer this for the present ; upon a future occasion 
we shall submit it to the judgment of the public. A revolu- 
tion, even in toy-shops, should not be attempted, unless there 
appear a moral certainty that we both may, and can, change 
for the better. The danger of doing too much in education, is 
greater even than the danger of doing too little. As the mer- 
chants in France, answered to Colbert, when he desired to 
know " how h€ could best assist them," children might, per- 
haps, reply to those who are most officious to amuse them. 
" Leave us to ourselves." 



TASKS. 31 



CHAPTER II. 

TASKS. 

" Why don't you get your task, instead of playing with 
your playthings from morning till night ? You are grown too 
old now to do nothing but play. It is high time you should 
learn to read and write, for you cannot be a child all your 
life, child ; so go and fetch your book, and learn your task.'''' 

This angry apostrophe is probably addressed to a child, at 
the moment when he is intent upon some agreeable occupa- 
tion, which is now to be stigmatized with the name of Play. 
Why, that word should all at once change its meaning ; why 
that should now be a crime, which was formerly a virtue ; 
why he, who had so often been desired to go and play, should 
now be reviled for his obedience, the young casuist is unable 
to discover. He hears that he is no longer a child : this he 
is willing to believe ; but the consequence is alarming. Of 
the new duties incumbent upon his situation, he has yet but a 
confused idea. In his manly character, he is not yet thor- 
oughly perfect: his pride would make him despise every 
thing that is childish, but no change has yet been wrought in 
the inward man, and his old tastes and new ambition, are in di- 
rect opposition. Whether to learn to read, be a dreadful thing 
or not, is a question he cannot immediately solve ; but if his 
reasoning faculty be suspended, there is yet a power secretly 
working within him, by which he will involuntarily be gov- 
erned. This power is the power of association : of its laws, 
he is, probably, not more ignorant than his tutor ; nor is he 
aware that whatever word or idea comes into his mind, with 
any species of pain, will return, whenever it is recalled to his 
memory, with the same feelings. The word Task, the first 
time he hears it, is an unmeaning word, but it ceases to be in- 
different to him the moment he hears it pronounced in a ter* 
rible voice. " Learn your task," and " fetch your book," re- 
cur to his recollection with indistinct feelings of pain ; and 
hence, without further consideration, he will be disposed to 
dislike both books and tasks ; but his feelings are the last 
things to be considered upon this occasion ; the immediate 
business, is to teach him to read. A new era in his life now 
commences. The age of learning begins, and begins in sor- 
row. The consequences of a bad beginning, are proverbially 
ominous ; but no omens can avert his fate, no omens can deter 



3.2 Practical education. 

his tutor from the undertaking ; the appointed moment is come ; 
the boy is four years old, and he must learn to read. Some 
people, struck with a panic fear, lest their children should nev- 
er learn to read and write, think that they cannot be in too 
great a hurry to teach them. Spelling-books, grammars, dic- 
tionaries, rods and masters, are collected ; nothing is to be 
heard of in the house but tasks ; nothing is to be seen but 
tears. 

" No tears ! no tasks ! no masters ! nothing upon compul- 
sion !" say the opposite party in education. " Children must 
be left entirely at liberty ; they will learn every thing better 
than you can teach them ; their memory must not be over- 
loaded with trash ; their reason must be left to grow." 

Their reason will never grow, unless it be exercised, is the 
reply ; their memory must be stored whilst they are young, 
because, in youth, the memory is most tenacious. If you 
leave them at liberty forever, they will never learn to spell ; 
they will never learn Latin ; they will never learn Latin 
grammar ; yet, they must learn Latin grammar, and a number 
of other disagreeable things ; therefore, we must give them 
tasks and task-masters. 

In all these assertions, perhaps, we shall find a mixture of 
truth and error; therefore, we had better be governed by 
neither party, but listen to both, and examine arguments un- 
awed by authority. And first, as to the panic fear, which, 
though no argument, is a most powerful motive. We see but 
few examples of children so extremely stupid as not to have 
been able to learn to read and write between the years of 
three and thirteen ; but we see many whose temper and 
whose understanding have been materially injured by pre- 
mature or injudicious instruction ; we see many who are dis- 
gusted, perhaps irrecoverably, with literature, whilst they are 
fluently reading books which they cannot comprehend, or 
learning words by rote, to which they affix no ideas. It is 
scarcely worth while to speak of the vain ambition of those 
who long only to have it said, that their children read sooner 
than those of their neighbors do ; for, supposing their utmost 
wish to be gratified, that their son could read before the age 
when children commonly articulate, still the triumph must be 
of short duration, the fame confined to a small circle of " foes 
and friends," and, probably, in a few years, the memory of 
the phenomenon would remain only with his doting grand- 
mother. Surely, it is the use which children make of their ac- 
quirements which is of consequence, not the possessing them 
a few years sooner or later. A man, who, during his whole 
life, could never write any thing that was worth reading, would 
find it but poor consolation for himself, his friends, or the pub- 



TASKS. 33 

lie, to reflect, that he had been in joining-hand before he was 
fire years old. 

As it is usually managed, it is a dreadful task indeed to 
learn, and, if possible, a more dreadful task to teach to read. 
With the help of counters, and coaxing, and gingerbread, or 
by dint of reiterated pain and terror, the names of the four- 
and-twenty letters of the alphabet, are, perhaps, in the course 
of some weeks, firmty fixed in the pupil's memory. So much 
the worse ; all these names will disturb him, if he have com- 
mon sense, and at every step must stop his progress. To be- 
gin with the vowels : each of these have several different 
sounds, and, consequently, ought to have several names, or 
different signs, to distinguish them in different circumstances. 
In the first lesson of the spelling-book, the child begins with 
a-b makes ab ; b-a makes ba. The inference, if any general 
inference can be drawn from this lesson, is, that when a 
comes before b, it has one sound, and after b, it has another 
sound; but this is contradicted by and by, and it appears 
that a after b, has various sounds, as in ball, in bat, in bare. The 
letter i in fire, is i, as we call it in the alphabet, but in fir, it is 
changed ; in pin, it is changed again ; so that the child, being 
ordered to affix to the same sign a variety of sounds and names, 
and not knowing in what circumstances to obey, and in what to 
disregard the contradictory injunctions imposed upon him, he 
pronounces sounds at hazard, and adheres positively to the 
last ruled case, or maintains an apparently sullen, or truly 
philosophic and sceptical silence. Must e in pen, and e in 
where, and e in verse, and e in fear, all be called e alike? The 
child is patted on the head for reading u as it ought to be pro- 
nounced in future ; but if, remembering this encouragement, 
the pupil should venture to pronounce u in gun, and bun, in 
the same manner, he will, inevitably, be disgraced. Pain and 
shame impress precepts upon the mind : the child, therefore, 
is intent upon remembering the new sound of u in bun ; but 
when he comes to busy, and burial, and prudence, his last prec- 
edent will lead him fatally astray, and he will again be called 
a dunce. O, in the exclamation Oh ! is happily called by its 
alphabetical name ; but in to, we can hardly know it again, 
and in morning and wonder, it has a third and a fourth addi- 
tional sound. The amphibious letter y, which is either a vow- 
el Or a consonant, has one sound in one character, and two 
sounds in the other ; as a consonant, it is pronounced as in 
yesterday ; in try, it is sounded as i ; in any, and in the termi- 
nation of many other words, it is sounded like e. Must a child 
know all this by intuition, or must it be whipt into him ? But 
he must know a great deal more, before he can read the 
most common words. What length of time should we allow 
him for learning, when c is to be sounded like k, and when 
5 



34 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

like s ? and how much longer time shall we add for learning 
when s shall be pronounced sh, as in sure, or z, as in has ; the 
sound of which last letter z, he cannot, by any conjuration, ob- 
tain from- the name zed, the only name by which he has been 
taught to call it ? How much time shall we allow a patient 
tutor for teaching a docile pupil, when g is to be sounded 
soft, and when hard ? There are many carefully worded rules 
in the spelling-books, specifying before what letters, and in 
what situations, g shall vary in sound ; but, unfortunately, 
these rules are difficult to be learned by heart, and still more 
difficult to understand. These laws, however positive, are 
not found to be of universal application, or at least, a child 
has not always wit or time to apply them upon the spur of the 
occasion. In coming to the words ingenious gentleman, get a 
good grammar, he may be puzzled by the nice distinctions he 
is to make in pronunciation in cases apparently similar ; but 
he has not yet become acquainted with all the powers of this 
privileged letter : in company with h, it assumes the character 
off, as in tough ; another time he meets it, perhaps, in the same 
company, in the same place, and, as nearly as possible, in the 
same circumstances, as in the word though ; but now g is to be- 
come a silent letter, and is to pass incognito, and the child will 
commit an unpardonable error, if he claimed the incognito as his 
late acquaintance/. Still, all these are slight difficulties ; a mo- 
ment's reflection must convince us, that by teaching the com- 
mon names of every consonant in the alphabet, we prepare a 
child for misery, when he begins to spell or read. A conso- 
nant, as sayeth the spelling-book, is a letter which cannot be 
pronounced without a vowel before or after it : for this rea- 
son B, is called be, and L, el ; but why the vowel should come 
first in one case, or last in the second, we are not informed ; 
nor are we told why the names of some letters have no re- 
semblance whatever to their sounds, either with a vowel be- 
fore or after them. Suppose, that after having learned the al- 
phabet, a child was to read the words 

Here is some apple-pye. 
He would pronounce the letters thus : 

Acheare ies esoeme apepeele pewie. 
With this pronunciation the child would never decipher these 
simple words. It will be answered, perhaps, that no child is 
expected to read as soon as he has learnt his alphabet : a 
long initiation of monsyllabic, dissyllabic, trissyllabic, and 
polysyllabic words is previously to be submitted to ; nor, af- 
ter this inauguration, are the novices capable of performing 
with propriety the ceremony of reading whole words and 
sentences. By a different method of teaching, all this waste 
of labour and of time, all this confusion of rules and excep- 



TASKS. 35 

dons, and all the consequent confusion in the understanding 
of the pupil, may be avoided. 

In teaching a child to read, every letter should have a pre- 
cise single sound annexed to its figure ; this should never va- 
ry. Where two consonants are joined together, so as to have 
but one sound, as ph, sh, &c. the two letters should be coup- 
led together by a distinct invariable mark. Letters that are 
silent should be marked in such a manner as to point out to 
the child that they are not to be sounded. Upon these sim- 
ple rules our method of teaching to read has been founded. 
The signs or marks, by which these distinctions are to be ef- 
fected, are arbitrary, and may be varied as the teacher 
chooses ; the addition of a single point above or below the 
common letters is employed to distinguish the different sounds 
that are given to the same letter, and a mark underneath such 
letters as are to be omitted, is the only apparatus necessary. 
These marks were employed by the author in 1776, before 
he had seen Sheridan's, or any similar dictionary ; he has 
found that they do not confuse children as much as figures, 
because when dots are used to distinguish sounds, there is on- 
ly a change of place, and no change of form : but any person 
that chooses it, may substitute figures instead of dots. It 
should, however, be remembered, that children must learn to 
distinguish the figures before they can be useful in discrimi- 
nating the words. 

All these sounds, and each of the characters which denote 
them, should be distinctly known by a child before we begin 
to teach him to read. And here at the first step we must en- 
treat the teacher to have patience ; to fix firmly in her mind, 
we say her mind, because we address ourselves to mothers ; 
that it is immaterial whether a child learns this alphabet in 
six weeks or in six months ; at all events, let it not be incul- 
cated with restraint, or made tiresome, lest it should retard 
the whole future progress of the pupil. We do not mean to 
recommend the custom of teaching in play, but surely a 
cheerful countenance is not incompatible with application. 

The three sounds of the letter (a) should first be taught ; 
they may be learned by the dullest child in a week, if the 
letters are shown to him for a minute or two, twice a day. 
Proper moments should be chosen when the child is not in- 
tent upon any thing else ; when other children have appeared 
to be amused with reading ; when the pupil himself appears 
anxious to be instructed. As soon as he is acquainted with 
the sounds of (a) and with their distinguishing marks, each of 
these sounds should be formed into syllables, with each of the 
consonants ; but we should never name the consonants by 
their usual names ; if it be required to point them out by 
sounds, let them resemble the real sounds or powers of the 



36 PHACTICAL EDUCATION. 

consonants ; but in fact it will never be necessary to name thd 
consonants separately, till their powers, in combination with 
the different vowels, be distinctly acquired. It will then be 
time enough to teach the common names of the letters. To a 
person unacquainted with the principles upon which this mode 
of teaching is founded, it must appear strange, that a child 
should be able to read before he knows the names of his let- 
ters ; but it has been ascertained, that the names of the let- 
ters are an incumbrance in teaching a child to read. 

In the quotation from Mrs. Barbauld, at the bottom of the 
alphabetical tables, there is a stroke between the letters b and 
r, in February, and between t and h, in there, to show that 
these letters are to be sounded together, so as to make one sound. 
The same is to be observed as to (ng) in the word long, and 
also as to the syllable ing, which, in the table No. 4, column 4, 
is directed to be taught as one sound. The mark (.) of ob- 
literation, is put under (y) in the word days, under c final in 
there, and also under one of the /'s and the (w) in yellow, to 
show that these letters are not to be pronounced. The ex- 
ceptions to this scheme of articulation are very few ; such as 
occur, are marked, with the number employed in Walkers 
dictionary, to denote the exception ; to which excellent work, 
the teacher will, of course, refer. 

Parents, at the first sight of this new alphabet, will perhaps 
tremble lest they should be obliged to learn the whole of it 
before they begin to teach their children : but they may calm 
their apprehensions, for they need only point out the letters 
in succession to the child, and sound them as they are sound- 
ed in the words annexed to the letters in the table, and the 
child will soon, by repetition, render the marks of the res- 
pective letters familiar to the teacher. We have never found 
any body complain of difficulty, who has gone on from letter 
to letter along with the child who was taught. 

As soon as our pupil knows the different sounds of (a) com- 
bined in succession with all the consonants, we may teach him 
the rest of the vowels joined with all the consonants, which 
will be a short and easy work. Our readers need not be 
alarmed at the apparent slowness of this method : six months, 
at the rate of four or five minutes each day, will render all 
these combinations perfectly familiar. One of Mrs. Bar- 
bauld's lessons for young children, carefully marked in the 
same manner as the alphabet, should, when they are well 
acquainted with the sounds of each of the vowels with each 
of the consonants, be put into our pupil's hands.* 

* Some of these lessons, and others by the authors, will shortly be printed, 
and marked according to this method. 



Page 36, 



?. ,'// II l/fl/ tiO til 



a 


/,/, 


a 

4 
e 




e 


/// 1/ 


e 


/,, 


e 


//•At',, 


1 


////, 


l 


/ // 


i 


/>/>,/ 


i 


///r/c/f/. /ne 





////O/ZC 


6 


O^i, 


o 


/ot^e> 





.tnsO-v-e, 


u 


//Uh£/ 


li 


/'//oy 


xi 


•>// >z 


y 




Y 


a/'i^if' 



J 



' St HI //■ t/t '<• / 'tut / / I 



ea 



ew 



la 



le 



1G 



oi 



OTl 



ew 



Ha 



TH 



ev^ 



mil 



_S // //// 1 



////////'// 



A.Ws/116^ 



t//.j//t/t:/r- 



/a/ttyttw 



'J 



a. /? 



C Ct-A yl^ 

c 



3g* 

ing- 
le 

ve 

s 

JTXtrn 

tfe 
ti 

i mi, 
VV11 

OTlgll 



& 



A"//t 
/////it, 



ea// 
cc/f/ 

I 

///<rt'//tne 

'//a 
„/,// 

y? .• 

///< 
r//'t /j&an 
//// /?/>/i 

frttrt/i 



ba ca da ia ga lia ja lea la ma 
na pa qua ra sa ta va wa ya za 

/r/f/ru>iM-ce{/,a.j eighty// w/wc/is igh aAe/'/no-lr j^ott?/c/cf/L^. 



February is cold tut ike days are long'; there is a yellow croctis 

COming tip ICf £arbaid&r Zefocns . 



TASKS. 37 

The sound of three or four letters together, will immediate- 
ly become familiar to him ; and when any of the less corfimon 
sounds of the vowels, such as are contained in the second ta- 
ble, and the terminating sounds, Hon, ly, &c. occur, they 
should be read to the child, and should be added to what 
he has got by rote from time to time. When all these 
marks and their corresponding sounds are learnt, the primer 
should be abandoned, and from that time the child will be 
able to read slowly the most difficult words in the language. 
We must observe, that the mark of obliteration is of the great- 
est service ; it is a clue to the whole labyrinth of intricate 
and uncouth orthography. The word though, by the oblite- 
ration of three letters, may be as easily read as the or that. 

It should be observed that all people, before they can read 
fluently, have acquired a knowledge of the general appear- 
ance oFmost of the words in the language, independently of 
the syllables of which they are composed. Seven children 
in the author's family were taught to read in this manner, and 
three in the common method ; the difference of time, labour, 
and sorrow, between the two modes of learning, appeared so 
clearly, that we can speak with confidence upon the subject. 
We think that nine-tenths of the labour and disgust of learning 
to read, may be saved by this method ; and that instead of 
frowns and tears, the usual harbingers of learning, cheerful- 
ness and smiles may initiate willing pupils in the most difficult 
of all human attainments. 

A. and H. at four and five years old, after they had learned 
the alphabet, without having ever combined the letters into 
syllables, were set to read one of Mrs. Barbauld's little books. 
After being employed two or three minutes every day, for a 
fortnight, in making out the words of this book, a paper with 
a few raisins well concealed in its folds, was given to each of 
them, with these words printed on the outside of it, marked 
according to our alphabet : 

" Open this, and eat what you find in it." 

In twenty minutes, they read it distinctly without any as- 
sistance. 

The step from reading with these marks, to reading with- 
out them, will be found very easy. Nothing more is neces- 
sary, than to give children the same books, without marks, 
which they can read fluently with them. 

Spelling comes next to reading. New trials for the tem- 
per ; new perils for the understanding ; positive rules and ar- 
bitrary exceptions ; endless examples and contradictions ; till 
at length, out of all patience with the stupid docility of his 
pupil, the tutor perceives the absolute necessity of making 
him get by heart, with all convenient speed, every word in 
the language. The formidable columns in dread succession 



38 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

arise a host of foes ; two columns a day, at least, may be con- 
quered. Months and years are devoted to the undertaking ; 
but after going through a whole spelling-book, perhaps a 
whole dictionary, till we come triumphantly to spell Zeugma, 
we have forgotten to spell Abbot, and we must begin again 
with Abasement. Merely the learning to spell so many un- 
connected words, without any assistance from reason or anal- 
ogy, is nothing, compared with the difficulty of learning the 
explanation of them by rote, and the still greater difficulty of 
understanding the meaning of the explanation. When a child 
has got by rote, 

" Midnight, the depth of night ;" 

" Metaphysics, the science which treats of immaterial be- 
ings, and of forms in general abstracted from matter ;" 
has he acquired any distinct ideas, either of midnight or of 
metaphysics ? If a boy had eaten rice pudding, till he fan- 
cied himself tolerably well acquainted with rice, would he 
find his knowledge much improved, by learning from his 
spelling-book, the words 

" Rice, a foreign esculent grain ?" 
Yet we are surprised to discover, that men have so few accu- 
rate ideas, and that so many learned disputes originate in a 
confused or improper use of words. 

" All this is very true," says a candid schoolmaster ; " we 
see the evil, but we cannot new-model the language, or write 
a perfect philosophical dictionary ; and, in the mean time, 
we are bound to teach children to spell, which we do with the 
less reluctance, because, though we allow that it is an ardu- 
ous task, we have found from experience, that it can be ac- 
complished, and that the understandings of many of our pu- 
pils survive all the perils, to which you think them exposed 
during the operation. 

The understandings may, and do, survive the operation ; 
but why should they be put in unnecessary danger ? and why 
should we early disgust children with literature, by the pain 
and difficulty of their first lessons ? We are convinced, that 
the business of learning to spell is made much more laborious 
to children than it need to be : it may be useful to give them 
five or six words every day to learn by heart, but more only 
loads their memory ; and we should, at first, select words of 
which they know the meaning, and which occur most fre- 
quently in reading or conversation. The alphabetical list of 
words in a spelling-book contains many which are not in 
common use, and the pupil forgets these as fast as he learns 
them. We have found it entertaining to children, to ask them 
to spell any short sentence as it has been accidentally spoken. 
" Put this book on that table." Ask a child how he would 
spell these words, if he were obliged to write them down, and 



TASKS. 39 

you introduce into his mind the idea that he must learn to 
spell, before he can make his words and thoughts understood 
in writing. It is a good way to make children write down a 
few words of their own selection every day, and correct the 
spelling ; and also after they have been reading, whilst the 
words are yet fresh in their memory, we may ask them to 
spell some of the words which they have just seen. By these 
means, and by repeating, at different times in the day, those 
words which are most frequently wanted, his vocabulary will 
be pretty well stocked without its having cost him many 
tears. We should observe that children learn to spell more 
by the eye than by the ear, and that the more they read and 
write, the more likely they will be to remember the combina- 
tion of letters in words which they have continually before 
their eyes, or which they feel it necessary to represent to 
others. When young people begin to write, they first feel 
the use of spelling, and it is then that they will learn it with 
most ease and precision. Then the greatest care should be 
taken to look over their writing, and to make them correct 
every word in which they have made a mistake ; because, 
bad habits of spelling, once contracted, can scarcely be 
cured : the understanding has nothing to do with the busi- 
ness, and when the memory is puzzled between the rules of 
spelling right, and the habits of spelling wrong, it becomes a 
misfortune to the pupil to write even a common letter. The 
shame, which is annexed to bad spelling, excites young peo- 
ple's attention, as soon as they are able to understand, that it 
is considered as a mark of ignorance and ill-breeding. We 
have often observed, that children listen with anxiety to the 
remarks that are made upon this subject in their presence, 
especially when the letters or notes of grown up people are 
criticised. 

Some time ago, a lady, who was reading a newspaper, met 
with the story of an ignorant magistrate, who gave for his 
toast, at a public dinner, the two K's, for the King and Con- 
stitution. " How very much ashamed the man must have 
felt, when all the people laughed at him for his mistake ! they 
must have all seen that he did not know how to spell ; and 
what a disgrace for a magistrate too !" said a boy who heard 
the anecdote. It made a serious impression upon him. A 
few months afterwards, he was employed by his father in an 
occupation which was extremely agreeable to him, but in 
which he continually felt the necessity of spelling correctly. 
He was employed to send messages by a telegraph ; these 
messages he was obliged to write down hastily, in little jour- 
nals kept for the purpose ; and as these were seen by several 
people, when the business of the day came to be reviewed, 
the boy had a considerable motive for orthographical exact 



40 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ness. He became extremely desirous to teach himself, and 
consequently his success was from that moment certain. As 
to the rest, we refer to Lady Carlisle's comprehensive maxim, 
" Spell well if you can." 

It is undoubtedly of consequence to teach the rudiments of 
literary education early, to get over the first difficulties of 
reading, writing, and spelling ; but much of the anxiety and 
bustle, and labour of teaching these things, may be advanta- 
geously spared. If more attention were turned to the general 
cultivation of the understanding, and if more pains were ta- 
ken to make literature agreeable to children, there would be 
found less difficulty to excite them to mental exertion, or to 
induce the habits of persevering application. 

When we speak of rendering literature agreeable to chil- 
dren, and of the danger of associating pains with the sight of 
a book, or with the sound of the word task., we should at the 
same time avoid the error of those who, in their first lessons, 
accustom their pupils to so much amusement, that they cannot 
help afterwards feeling disgusted with the sobriety of instruc- 
tion. It has been the fashion of late to attempt teaching eve- 
ry thing to children in play, and ingenious people have con- 
trived to insinuate much useful knowledge without betraying 
the design to instruct ; but this system cannot be pursued be- 
yond certain bounds without many inconveniences. The 
habit of being amused not only increases the desire for amuse- 
ment, but it lessens even the relish for pleasure ; so that the 
mind becomes passive and indolent, and a course of perpetu- 
ally increasing stimulus is necessary to awaken attention. 
When dissipated habits are acquired, the pupil loses power 
over his own mind, and, instead of vigorous voluntary exer- 
tion, which he should be able to command, he shows that 
wayward imbecility, which can think successfully only by 
fits and starts : this paralytic state of mind has been found to 
be one of the greatest calamities attendant on what is called 
genius ; and injudicious education creates or increases this 
disease. Let us not therefore humour children in this capri- 
cious temper, especially if they have quick abilities : let us 
give rewards proportioned to their exertions with uniform jus- 
tice, but let us not grant bounties in education, which, however 
they may appear to succeed in effecting partial and temporary 
purposes, are not calcutated to ensure any consequences per- 
manently beneficial. The truth is, that useful knowledge 
cannot be obtained without labour ; that attention long con- 
tinued is laborious, but that without this labour nothing excel- 
lent can be accomplished. Excite a child to attend in earnest 
for a short time, his mind will be less fatigued, and his under- 
standing more improved, than if he had exerted but half the 
energy twice as long : the degree of pain which he may have 



TASKS. 41 

felt will be amply and properly compensated by his success ; 
this will not be an arbitrary, variable reward, but one within 
his own power, and that can be ascertained by his own feel- 
ings. Here is no deceit practised, no illusion ; the same 
course of conduct may be regularly pursued through the 
whole of his education, and his confidence in his tutor will 
progressively increase. On the contrary, if, to entice him to 
enter the paths of knowledge, we strew them with flowers, 
how will he feel when he must force his way through thorns 
and briars ! 

There is a material difference between teaching children 
in play, and making learning a task ; in the one case we as- 
sociate factitious pleasure, in the other factitious pain, with 
the object : both produce pernicious effects upon the temper, 
and retard the natural progress of the understanding. The 
advocates in favour of " scholastic badinage" have urged, that 
it excites an interest in the minds of children similar to that 
which makes them endure a considerable degree of labour in 
the pursuit of their amusements. Children, it is said, work 
hard at play, therefore we should let them play at work. 
Would not this produce effects the very reverse of what we 
desire ? The whole question must at last depend upon the 
meaning of the word play : if by play be meant every thing 
that is not usually called a task, then undoubtedly much may 
be learned at play : if, on the contrary, we mean by the ex- 
pression to describe that state of fidgeting idleness, or of bois- 
terous activity, in which the intellectual powers are torpid, 
or stunned with unmeaning noise, the assertion contradicts it- 
self. At play so defined, children can learn nothing but 
bodily activity ; it is certainly true, that when children are 
interested about any thing, whether it be about what we call 
a trifle, or a matter of consequence, they will exert themselves 
in order to succeed ; but from the moment the attention is 
fixed, no matter on what, children are no longer at idle play, 
they are at active work. 

S , a little boy of nine years old, was standing without 

any book in his hand, and seemingly idle; he was amusing 
himself with looking at what he called a rainbow upon the floor ; 
he begged his sister M to look at it ; then he said he won- 
dered what could make it ; how it came there. The sun shone 
bright through the window; the boy moved several things in 
the room, so as to place them sometimes between the light and 
the colours which he saw upon the floor, and sometimes in a 
corner of the room where the sun did not shine. As he 
moved the things, he said, " This is not it ;" " nor this ;" " this 
has'n't any thing to do with it." At last he found, that when 
he moved a tumbler of water out of the place where it stood, 
6 



42 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

his rainbow vanished. Some violets were in the tumbler; 

S thought they might be the cause of the colours which 

he saw upon the floor, or, as he expressed it, " Perhaps these 
may be the thing." He took the violets out of the water ; 
the colours remained upon the floor. He then thought that 
" it might be the water." He emptied the glass ; the colours 
remained, but they were fainter. S immediately ob- 
served, that it was the water and glass together that made the 
rainbow. " But," said he, " there is no glass in the sky, yet 
there is a rainbow, . so that I think the water alone would do, 
if we could but hold it together without the glass." " Oh I 
know how I can manage." He poured the water slowly out 
of the tumbler into a basin, which he placed where the sun 
shone, and he saw the colours on the floor twinkling behind 
the water as it fell : this delighted him much ; but he asked 
why it would not do when the sun did not shine. The sun 
went behind a cloud whilst he was trying his experiments : 
" There was light," said he, " though there was no sunshine." 
He then said he thought that the different thickness of the 
glass was the cause of the variety of colours : afterwards he 
said he thought that the clearness or muddiness of the differ- 
ent drops of water was the cause of the different colours. 

A rigid preceptor, who thinks that every boy must be idle 
who has not a Latin book constantly in his hand, would per- 
haps have reprimanded S for wasting his time at play, 

and would have summoned him from his rainbow to his task ; 
but it is very obvious to any person free from prejudices, that 
this child was not idle whilst he was meditating upon the 
rainbow on the floor ; his attention was fixed ; he was reason- 
ing; he was trying experiments. We may call this play if 
we please, and we may say that Descartes was at play, when 
he first verified Antonio de Dominis bishop of Spalatro's trea- 
tise of the rainbow, by an experiment with a glass Globe :* 
and we may say that Buffon was idle, when his pleased atten- 
tion was first caught with a landscape of green shadows, when 
one evening at sunset he first observed that the shadows of 
trees, which fell upon a white wall, were green. He was 
first delighted with the exact representation of a green arbour, 
which seemed as if it had been newly painted on the wall. 
Certainly the boy with his rainbow on the floor was as much 
amused as the philosopher with his coloured shadows ; and, 
however high sounding the name of Antonio de Dominis, 
bishop of Spalatro, it does not alter the business in the least ; 
he could have exerted only his utmost attention upon the theo- 
ry of the rainbow, and the child did the same. We do not 



* See Priestley's History of Vision, vol. i. p. 51. 



TASKS. 43 

mean to compare the powers of reasoning, or the abilities of 
the child and the philosopher; we would only show that the 
same species of attention was exerted by both. 

To fix the attention of children, or, in other words, to in- 
terest them about those subjects to which we wish them to 
apply, must be our first object in the early cultivation of the 
understanding. This we shall not find a difficult undertaking 
if we have no false associations, no painful recollections to 
contend with. We can connect any species of knowledge 
with those occupations which are immediately agreeable to 
young people : for instance, if a child is building a house, we 
may take that opportunity to teach him how bricks are made, 
how the arches over doors and windows are made, the nature 
of the keystone and butments of an arch, the manner in which 
all the different parts of the roof of a house are put together, 
&c. ; whilst he is learning all this he is eagerly and seriously 
attentive, and we educate his understanding in the best possi- 
ble method. But if, mistaking the application of the princi- 
ple, that literature should be made agreeable to children, we 
should entice a child to learn his letters by a promise of a gilt 
coach, or by telling him that he would be the cleverest boy 
in the world if he could but learn the letter A, we use false 
and foolish motives ; we may possibly, by such means, effect 
the immediate purpose, but we shall assuredly have reason to 
repent of such imprudent deceit. If the child reasons at all^ 
he will be content after his first lesson with being " the 
cleverest boy in the world," and he will not, on a future oc- 
casion, hazard his fame, having much to lose, and nothing to 
gain ; besides, he is now master of a gilt coach, and some new 
and larger reward must be proffered to excite his industry. 
Besides the disadvantage of early exhausting our stock of in- 
citements, it is dangerous in teaching to humour pupils with a 
variety of objects by way of relieving their attention. The 
pleasure of thinking, and much of the profit, must frequently 
depend upon preserving the greatest possible connection be- 
tween our ideas. Those who allow themselves to start from/ 
one object to another, acquire such dissipated habits of mind, 
that they cannot, without extreme difficulty and reluctance, 
follow any connected train of thought. You cannot teach 
those who will not follow the chain of your reasons ; upon 
the connection of our ideas, useful memory and reasoning 
must depend. We will give you an instance : arithmetic is 
one of the first things that we attempt to teach children. In 
the following dialogue, which passed between a boy of five 
years old and his father, we may observe that, till the child 
followed his father's train of ideas, he could not be taught. 

Father. S , how many can you take from one ? 

■& . None. 



44 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Father. None ! Think ; can you take nothing from one ? 

S . None, except that one. 

Father. Except ! Then you can take one from one ? 

S . Yes, that one. 

Father. How many then can you take from one ? 

S . One. 

Father. Very true ; but now, can you take two from one ? 

S . Yes, if they were figures I could with a rubber-out. 

(This child had frequently sums written for him with a black 
lead pencil, and he used to rub out his figures when they were 
wrong with Indian rubber, which he had heard called rubber- 
out.) 

Father. Yes, you could ; but now we will not talk of figures, 
we will talk of things. There may be one horse or two 
horses, or one man or two men. 

S . Yes, or one coat or two coats. 

Father. Yes, or one thing or two things, no matter what 
they are. Now, could you take two things from one thing ? 

S . Yes, if there were three things I could take away 

two things, and leave one. 

His father took up a cake from the tea-table. 

Father. Could I take two cakes from this one cake ? 

S . You could take two pieces. 

His father divided the cake into halves, and held up each 
half so that the child might distinctly see them. 

Father. What would you call these two pieces ? 

S . Two cakes. 

Father. No, not two cakes. 

S . Two biscuits. 

Father. (Holding up a whole biscuit :) What is this ? 

-S . A thing to eat. 

Father. Yes, but what would you call it ? 

S . A biscuit. 

His Father broke it into halves, and showed one half. 

Father. What would you call this ? 

S . was silent, and his sister was applied to, who an- 
swered, " Half a biscuif." 

Father. Very well ; that's all at present. 

The father prudently stopped here, that he might not con- 
fuse his pupil's understanding. Those only who have at- 
tempted to teach children can conceive how extremely diffi- 
cult it is to fix their attention, or to make them seize the con- 
nection of ideas, which it appears to us almost impossible to 
miss. Children are well occupied in examining external ob- 
jects, but they must also attend to words as well as things. 
One of the great difficulties in early instruction arises from 
the want of words : the pupil very often has acquired the 
necessary ideas, but they are not associated in his mind with 



TASKS. 45 

the words which his tutor uses ; these words are then to him 
mere sounds, which suggest no correspondent thoughts. 
Words, as M. Condillac well observes,* are essential to our 
acquisition of knowledge ; they are the medium through 
which one set of beings can convey the result of their experi- 
ments and observations to another ; they are, in all mental 
processes, the algebraic signs which assist us in solving the 
most difficult problems. What agony does a foreigner, know- 
ing himself to be a man of sense, appear to suffer, when, for 
want of language, he cannot in conversation communicate his 
knowledge, explain his reasons, enforce his arguments, or 
make his wit intelligible ? In vain he has recourse to the lan- 
guage of action. The language of action, or, as Bacon calls 
it, of " transitory hieroglyphic," is expressive, but inadequate. 
As new ideas are collected in the mind, new signs are want- 
ed, and the progress of the understanding would be early and 
fatally impeded by the want of language. M. de la Conda- 
mine tells us that there is a nation who have no sign to express 
the number three but this word, poellartarrorincourac. These 
people having begun, as Condillac observes, in such an in- 
commodious manner, it is not surprising that they have not 
advanced further in their knowledge of arithmetic : they have 
got no further than the number three; their knowledge of 
arithmetic stops forever at poellartarrorincourac. But even 
this cumbersome sign is better than none. Those w r ho have 
the misfortune to be born deaf and dumb, continue forever in 
intellectual imbecility. There is an account in the Memoircs 
de l'Academie Royale, p. xxii — xxiii, 1703, of a young man 
born deaf and dumb,t who recovered his hearing at the age 
four-and-twenty, and who, after employing himself in repeat- 
ing low to himself the words which he heard others pronounce, 
at length broke silence in company, and declared that he 
could talk. His conversation was but imperfect ; he was ex- 
amined by several able theologians, who chiefly questioned 
him on his ideas of God, the soul, and the morality or immo- 
rality of actions. It appeared that he had not thought upon 
any of these subjects ; he did not distinctly know what was 
meant by death, and he never thought of it. He seemed to 
pass a merely animal life, occupied with sensible, present ob- 
jects, and with the few ideas which he received by his sense 
of sight ; nor did he seem to have gained as much knowledge 
as he might have done, by the comparison of these ideas ; yet 
it is said that he did not appear naturally deficient in under- 
standing. 



* " Art de Penser." 

t See Condillac's Art de Penser. la the chapter " on the use of si 
this young man is mentioned. 



46 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Peter, the wild boy, who is mentioned in Lord Monboddo's 
Origin of Language,! had all his senses in remarkable perfec- 
tion. He lived at a farm house within half a mile of us in Hert- 
fordshire for some years, and we had frequent opportunities 
of trying experiments upon him. He could articulate imper- 
fectly a few words, in particular, King George, which words 
he always accompanied with an imitation of the bells, which 
rang at the coronation of George the Second ; he could in a 
manner imitate two or three common tunes, but without words. 
Though his head, as Mr. Wedgewood and many others had 
remarked, resembled that of Socrates, he was an idiot : he 
had acquired a few automatic habits of rationality and indus- 
try, but he could never be made to work at any continued oc- 
cupation : he would shut the door of the farm-yard five hun- 
dred times a day, but he would not reap or make hay. Draw- 
ing water from a neighbouring river was the only domestic bu- 
siness which he regularly pursued. In 111) we visited him, 
and tried the following experiment. He was attended to the 
river by a person who emptied his buckets repeatedly after 
Peter had repeatedly filled them. A shilling was put before 
his face into one of the buckets when it was empty ; he took 
no notice of it, but filled it with water and carried it home- 
ward : his buckets were taken from him before he reached the 
house and emptied on the ground ; the shilling, which had fallen 
out, was again shown to him, and put into the bucket. Peter re- 
turned to the river again, filled his bucket and went home ; and 
when the bucket was emptied by the maid at the house where 
he lived, he took the shilling and laid it in a place where he was 
accustomed to deposit the presents that were made to him by cu- 
rious strangers, and whence the farmer's wife collected the 
price of his daily exhibition. It appeared that this savage 
could not be taught to reason for want of language. 

Rousseau declaims with eloquence, and often with justice, 
against what he calls a knowledge of words. Words without 
correspondent ideas, are worse than useless ; they are coun- 
terfeit coin, which imposes upon the ignorant and unwary ; 
but words, which really represent ideas, are not only of cur- 
rent use, but of sterling value; they not only show our pres- 
ent store, but they increase our wealth, by keeping it in con- 
tinual circulation ; both the principal and the interest increase 
together. The importance of signs and words, in our reason- 
ings, has been eloquently explained, since the time of Condil- 
lac, by Stewart. We must use the ideas of these excellent 
writers, because they are just and applicable to the art of ed- 
ucation ; but whilst we use, it is with proper acknowledg- 



t Vol. II. 



Tasks. 47 

ments that we borrow, what we shall never be able to re- 
turn. 

It is a nice and difficult thing in education, to proportion a 
child's vocabulary exactly to his knowledge, dispositions, or 
conformation ; our management must vary ; some will acquire 
words too quickly, others too slowly. A child who has 
great facility in pronouncing sounds, will, for that reason, 
quickly acquire a number of words, whilst those whose organs 
of speech are not so happily formed, will, from that cause alone, 
be ready in forming a copious vocabulary. Children who 
have many companions, or who live with people who converse 
a great deal, have more motive, both from sympathy and emu- 
lation, to acquire a variety of words than those who live with 
silent people, and who have few companions of their own 
age. All these circumstances should be considered by pa- 
rents, before they form their judgment of a child's capacity 
from his volubility or his taciturnity. Volubility can easily 
be checked by simply ceasing to attend to h, and taciturnity 
may be vanquished by the encouragements of praise and af- 
fection : we should neither be alarmed at one disposition nor 
at the other, but steadily pursue the system of conduct which 
will be most advantageous to both. When a prattling, viva- 
cious child pours forth a multiplicity of words without under- 
standing their meaning, we may sometimes beg to have an ex- 
planation of a few of them, and the child will then be obliged 
to think, which will prevent him from talking nonsense anoth- 
er time. When a thoughtful boy, who is in the habit of ob- 
serving every object he sees, is at a loss for words to express 
his ideas, his countenance usually shows to those who can 
read the countenance of children, that he is not stupid ; there- 
fore, we need not urge him to talk, but assist him judicious- 
ly with words " in his utmost need :" at the same time we 
should observe carefully, whether he grows lazy when we 
assist him ; if his stock of words does not increase in propor- 
tion to the assistance we give, we should then stimulate him 
to exertiri, or else he will become habitually indolent in ex- 
pressing his ideas ; though he may think in a language of his 
own, he will not be able to understand our language when we 
attempt to teach him: this would be a source of daily mise- 
ry to both parties. 

When children begin to read, they seem suddenly to ac- 
quire a great variety of words: we should carefully examine 
whether they annex the proper meaning to these which are so 
rapidly collected. Instead of giving them lessons and tasks 
to get by rote, we should cautiously watch over every new 
phrase and every new word which they learn from books. 
There are but few books so written that young children can 
comprehend a single sentence in them without much explana- 



48 PRACTICAL EDUCATION". 

tion. It is tiresome to those who hear them read to explain 
every word; it is not only tiresome, but difficult; besides, the 
progress of the pupil seems to be retarded ; the grand business 
of reading, of getting through the book, is impeded ; and the 
tutor, more impatient than his pupil, says, " Read on, I can- 
not stop to explain that to you now. You will understand 
the meaning of the sentence if you will read to the end of the 
page. You have not read three lines this half hour ; we shall 
never get on at this rate." 

A certain dame at a country school, who had never been 
able to compass the word Nebuchadnezzar, used to desire her 
pupils to " call it Nazareth, and let it pass." 

If they be obliged to pass over words without comprehend- 
ing them in books, they will probably do the same in conver- 
sation ; and the difficulty of teaching such pupils, and of un- 
derstanding what they say, will be equally increased. At 
the hazard of being tedious, we must dwell a little longer upon 
this subject, because much of the future capacity of children 
seems to depend upon the manner in which they first acquire 
language. If their language be confused, so will be their 
thoughts ; and they will not be able to reason, to invent, or 
to write, with more precision and accuracy than they speak. 
The first words that children learn are the names of things ; 
these are easily associated with the objects themselves, and 
there is little danger of mistake or confusion. We will not 
enter into the grammatical dispute concerning the right of 
precedency, amongst pronoun substantives and verbs ; we do 
not know which came first into the mind of man; perhaps, in 
different minds, and in different circumstances, the preceden- 
cy must have varied ; but this seems to be of little conse- 
quence; children see actions performed, and they act them- 
selves ; when they want to express their remembrance of 
these actions, they make use of the sort of words which we 
call verbs. Let these words be strictly associated with the 
ideas which they mean to express, and no matter whether 
children know any thing about the disputes of grammarians, 
they will understand rational grammar in due time, simply 
by reflecting upon their own minds. This we shall explain 
more fully when we speak hereafter of grammar ; we just 
mention the subject here, to warn preceptors against puzzling 
their pupils too early with grammatical subtleties. 

If any person unused to mechanics was to read Dr. Desa- 
gulier's description of the manner in which a man walks, the 
number of a-b-c's, and the travels of the centre of gravity, it 
would so amaze and confound him, that he would scarcely 
believe he could ever again perform such a tremendous ope- 
ration as that of walking. Children, if they were early to 
hear grammarians talk of the parts of speech, and of syntax, 



TASKS. 49 

would conclude, that to speak must be one of the most diffi- 
cult arts in the world ; but children, who are not usually so 
unfortunate as to have grammarians for their preceptors, when 
they first begin to speak, acquire language, without being 
aware of the difficulties which would appear so formidable in 
theory. A child points to, or touches, the table, and when 
the word table is repeated, at the same instant he learns 
the name of the thing. The facility with which a number of 
names are thus learned in infancy is surprising ; but we must 
not imagine that the child, in learning these names, has ac- 
quired much knowledge; he has prepared himself to be taught, 
but he has not yet learnt any thing accurately. When a 
child sees a guinea and a shilling, and smiling says, " That's 
a guinea, mamma ! and that's a shilling!" the mother is pleas- 
ed and surprised by her son's intelligence, and she gives him 
credit for more than he really possesses. We have associa- 
ted with the words guinea and shilling a number of ideas, and 
when we hear the same words pronounced by a young child., 
we perhaps have some confused belief that he has acquired 
the same ideas that we have ; hence w r e are pleased with the 
mere sound of words of high import from infantine lips. 

Children who are delighted in their turn by the expression 
of pleasure in the countenance of others, repeat the things 
which they perceive have pleased ; and thus their education 
is begun by those who first smile upon them, and listen to 
them when they attempt to speak. They who applaud chil- 
dren for knowing the names of things, induce them quickly to 
learn a number of names by rote ; as long as they learn the 
names of external objects only which they can see, and smell, 
and touch, all is well ; the names will convey distinct ideas of 
certain perceptions. A child who learns the name of a taste, 
or of a colour, who learns that the taste of sugar is called 
sweet, and that the colour of a red rose is called red, has learn- 
ed distinct words to express certain perceptions : and we can 
at any future time recal to his mind the memory of those 
perceptions by means of their names, and he understands us 
as well as the most learned philosopher. But, suppose that a 
boy had learned only the name of gold ; that when different 
metals were shown to him, he could put his finger upon gold, 
and say, " That is gold ;" yet this boy does not know all the 
properties of gold ; he does not know in what it differs from 
other metals ; to what uses it is applied in arts, manufactures, 
and commerce ; the name of gold, in his mind, represents 
nothing more than a substance of a bright yellow colour, upon 
which people, he does not precisely know w r hy, set a great 
value. Now, it is very possible, that a child might, on the 
contrary, learn all the properties, and the various uses of gold. 
7 



50 T-RACTICAL EDUCATION. 

without having learned its name ; his ideas of this metal 
would be perfectly distinct ; but whenever he wished to speak 
of gold, he would be obliged to use a vast deal of circumlocu- 
tion to make himself understood ; and if he were to enume- 
rate all the properties of the metal every time he wanted to 
recal the general idea, his conversation would be intolerably 
tedious to others, and to himself this useless repetition must 
be extremely laborious. He would certainly be glad to learn 
that single word gold, which would save him so much trouble ; 
his understanding would appear suddenly to have improved, 
simply from his having acquired a proper sign to represent 
his ideas. The boy who had learnt the name, without know- 
ing any of the properties of gold, would also appear compar- 
atively ignorant, as soon as it is discovered that he has few 
ideas annexed to the word. It is, perhaps, for this reason, 
that some children seem suddenly to shine out without know- 
ledge, which no one suspected they possessed ; whilst others, 
who had appeared to be very quick and clever, come to a dead 
stop in their education, and appear to be blighted by some 
unknown cause. The children who suddenly shine out, are 
those who had acquired a number of ideas, and who, the mo- 
ment they acquire proper words, can communicate their 
thoughts to others. Those children who suddenly seem to 
lose their superiority, are those who had acquired a variety of 
words, but who had not annexed ideas to them. When their 
ignorance is detected, we not only despair of them, but they 
are apt to despair of themselves : they see their companions 
get before them, and they do not exactly perceive the cause of 
their sudden incapacity. Where we speak of sensible, visible, 
tangible objects, we can easily detect and remedy a child's 
ignorance. It is easy to discover whether he has or has not- 
a complete notion of such a substance as gold ; we can enu- 
merate its properties, and readily point out in what his defini- 
tion is defective. The substance can be easily produced for 
examination ; most of its properties are obvious to the sen- 
ses ; we have nothing to do but to show them to the child, and 
to associate with each property its usual name ; here there 
can be no danger of puzzling his understanding ; but when 
we come to the explanation of words which do not represent 
external objects, we shall find the affair more difficult. We 
can make children understand the meaning of those words 
which are the names of simple feelings of the mind, such as 
surprise, joy, grief, pity ; because we can either put our pupils 
in situations where they actually feel these sensations, and 
then we may associate the name with the feelings ; or we 
may, by the example of other people, who actually suffer pain 
or enjoy pleasure, point out what we mean by the words joy 
and grief. But how shall we explain to our young pupils a 



TASKS. 51 

number of words which represent neither existing substances 
nor simple feelings, when we can neither recur to experiment 
nor to sympathy for assistance 1 How shall we explain, for 
instance, the words virtue, justice, benevolence, beauty, taste, 
&c. ? To analyze our own ideas of these, is no easy task ; to 
explain the process to a young child, is scarcely possible. 
Call upon any man, who has read and reflected, for a defini- 
tion of virtue, the whole " theory of moral sentiments" rises, 
perhaps, to his view at once, in all its elegance ; the paradox- 
ical acumen of Mandeville, the perspicuous reasoning of 
Hume, the accurate metaphysics of Condillac, the persuasive 
eloquence of Stewart ; all the various doctrines that have 
been supported concerning the foundation of morals, such as 
the fitness of things, the moral sense, the beauty of truth, 
utility, sympathy, common sense ; all that has been said by 
ancient and modern philosophers, is recalled in transient per- 
plexing succession to his memory. If such be the state of 
mind of the man who is to define, what must be the condition 
of the child who is to understand the definition ? All that a 
prudent person will attempt, is to give instances of different 
virtues ; but even these, it will be difficult properly to select 
for a child. General terms, whether in morals or in natural 
philosophy, should, we apprehend, be as much as possible 
avoided in early education. Some people may imagine that 
children have improved in virtue and wisdom, when they can 
talk fluently of justice, and charity, and humanity ; when 
they can read with a good emphasis any didactic composi- 
tions in verse or prose. But let any person of sober com- 
mon sense, be allowed to cross-examine these proficients, and 
the pretended extent of their knowledge will shrink into a 
narrow compass ; nor will their virtues, which have never 
seen service, be ready for action. 

General terms are, as it were, but the indorsements upon 
the bundles of our ideas ; they are useful to those who have 
collected a number of ideas, but utterly useless to those who 
have no collections ready for classification : nor should we be 
in a hurry to tie up the bundles, till we are sure that the col- 
lection is tolerably complete ; the trouble, the difficulty, the 
shame of untying them late in life, is felt even by superior 
minds. " Sir," said Dr. Johnson, " I don't like to have any 
of my opinions attacked. I have made up my faggot, and 
if you draw out one you weaken the whole bundle." 

Preceptors sometimes explain general terms and abstract 
notions vaguely to their pupils, simply because they are 
ashamed to make that answer which every sensible person 
must frequently make to a child's enquiries. " I don't know."* 

* Rousseau. 



52 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Surely it is much better to say at once, " I cannot explain this 
to you," than to attempt an imperfect or sophistical reply. 
Fortunately for us, children, if they are not forced to attend 
to studies for which they have no taste, will not trouble us 
much with moral and metaphysical questions ; their attention 
will be fully employed upon external objects ; intent upon ex- 
periments, they will not be very inquisitive about theories. 
Let us then take care that their simple ideas be accurate, and 
when these are compounded, their complex notions, their 
principles, opinions, and tastes, will necessarily be just ; their 
language will then be as accurate as their ideas are distinct ; 
and hence they will be enabled to reason with precision, and 
to invent with facility. We may observe, that the great diffi- 
culty in reasoning is to fix steadily upon our terms ; ideas can 
be readily compared, when the words by which we express 
them are defined ; as in arithmetic and algebra, we can easily 
solve any problem, when we have precise signs for all the 
numbers and quantities which are to be considered. 

It is not from idleness, it is not from stupidity, it is not from 
obstinacy, that children frequently show an indisposition to 
listen to those who attempt to explain things to them. The ex- 
ertion of attention, which is frequently required from them, is 
too great for the patience of childhood : the words that are 
used are so inaccurate in their signification, that they convey 
to the mind sometimes one idea and sometimes another ; we 
might as well require of them to cast up a sum right whilst we 
rubbed out and changed the figures every instant, as expect 
that they should seize a combination of ideas presented to 
them in variable words. Whoever expects to command the 
attenuon of an intelligent child, must be extremely careful 
in the use of words. If the pupil be paid for the labour of lis- 
tening by the pleasure of understanding what is said, he will 
attend, whether it be to his playfellow, or to his tutor, to con- 
versation, or to books. But if he has by fatal experience dis- 
covered, that, let him listen ever so intently, he cannot under- 
stand, he will spare himself the trouble of fruitless exer- 
tion ; and, though he may put on a face of attention, his 
thoughts will wander far from his tutor and his tasks. 

" It is impossible to fix the attention of children," exclaims 
the tutor ; " when this boy attends he can do any thing, but 
he will not attend for a single instant." 

Alas ! it is in vain to say he will not attend ; he cannot. 



.ATTENTION. 53 



CHAPTER III. 



ON ATTENTION. 



Pere Bourgeois, one of the missionaries to China, attempt- 
ed to preach a Chinese sermon to the Chinese. His own ac- 
count of the business is the best we can give. 

" They told me Chou signifies a book, so that I thought 
whenever the word Chou was pronounced, a book was the 
subject of discourse ; not at all. Chou, the next time 1 heard 
it, I found signified a tree. Now I was to recollect Chou was 
a book, and a tree ; but this amounted to nothing. Chou I 
found also expressed great heats. Chou is to relate. Chou is 
the Aurora. Chou means to be accustomed. Chou expresses 
the loss of a wager, &c. I should never have done were I to 
enumerate all its meanings ************** * # 

" I recited my sermon at least fifty times to my servant be- 
fore I spoke it in public ; and yet I am told, though he contin- 
ually corrected me, that of the ten parts of the sermon (as the 
Chinese express themselves) they hardly understood three. 
Fortunately the Chinese are wonderfully patient." 

Children are sometimes in the condition in which the Chi- 
nese found themselves at this learned missionary's sermon, and 
their patience deserves to be equally commended. The diffi- 
culty of understanding the Chinese Chou, strikes us immedi- 
ately, and we sympathise with Pere Bourgeois's perplexity ; 
yet, many words, which are in common use amongst us, may 
perhaps be as puzzling to children. Block (see Johnson's 
Dictionary (signifies a heavy piece of timber, a mass of matter. 
Block means the wood on which hats are formed. Block means 
the wood on which criminals are beheaded. Block is a sea-term 
for pulley. Block is an obstruction, a stop ; and, finally, Block 
means a blockhead. 

There are in our language, ten meanings for sweet, ten for 
open, twenty-two for upon, and sixty-three for to fall. Such 
are the defects of language ! But, whatever they may be, we 
cannot hope immediately to see them reformed, because com- 
mon consent, and universal custom, must combine to establish 
a new vocabulary. None but philosophers could invent, and 
none but philosophers would adopt, a philosophical language. 
The new philosophical language of chemistry was received 
at first with some reluctance, even by chemists, notwithstand- 
ing its obvious utility and elegance. Butter of antimony, and 



54 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

liver of sulphur, flowers of zinc, oil of vitriol, and spirit of sul- 
phur by the bell, powder of algaroth, and salt of alem-broth, 
may yet long retain their ancient titles amongst apothecaries. 
There does not exist in the mineral kingdom either butter or 
oil, or yet flowers ; these treacherous names* are given to the 
most violent poisons, so that there is no analogy to guide the 
understanding or the memory : but Custom has a prescriptive 
right to talk nonsense. The barbarous enigmatical jargon of 
the ancient adepts continued for above a century to be the 
only chemical language of men of science, notwithstanding the 
prodigious labour to the memory, and confusion to the un- 
derstanding, which it occasioned : they have but just now 
left off calling one of their vessels for distilling, a death's 
head, and another a helmet. Capricious analogy with diffi- 
culty yields to rational arrangement. If such has been the 
slow progress of a philosophical language amongst the learn- 
ed, how can we expect to make a general, or even a partial 
reformation amongst the ignorant ? And it may be asked, how 
can we in education attempt to teach in any but customary 
terms ? There is no occasion to make any sudden or violent 
alteration in language ; but a man who attempts to teach, will 
mid it necessary to select his terms with care, to define them 
with accuracy, and to abide by them with steadiness ; thus he- 
will make a philosophical vocabulary for himself. Persons 
who want to puzzle and to deceive, always pursue a contrary 
practice ; they use as great a variety of unmeaning, or of am- 
biguous words, as they possibly can.t That state juggler, Ol- 
iver Cromwell, excelled in this species of eloquence ; his 
speeches are models in their kind. Count Cagliostro, and the 
Countess de la Motte, were not his superiors in the power of 
baffling the understanding. The ancient oracles, and the old 
books of judicial astrologers, and of alchemists, were contri- 
ved upon the same principles ; in all these we are confound- 
ed by a multiplicity of words which convey a doubtful sense. 

Children, who have not the habit of listening to words with- 
out understanding them, yawn and writhe with manifest 
symptoms of disgust, whenever they are compelled to hear 
sounds which convey no ideas to their minds. All supernu- 
merary words should be avoided in cultivating the power of 
attention. 

The common observation, that we can attend to but one 
thing at a time, should never be forgotten by those who ex- 
pect to succeed in the art of teaching. In teaching new terms, 
or new ideas, we must not produce a number at once. It is 
prudent to consider, that the actual progress made in our busi- 



* V. Preface to Berthollet's Chemical Nomenclature. . 
t V. Coridillac's " Art de Penser." 



ATTENTION. 55 

ness at one sitting is not of so much consequence, as the desire 
left in the pupil's mind to sit again.. Now a child will be bet- 
ter pleased with himself, and with his tutor, if he acquire one 
distinct idea from a lesson, than if he retained a confused no- 
tion of twenty different things. Some people imagine, that as 
children appear averse to repetition, variety will amuse them. 
Variety, to a certain degree, certainly relieves the mind ; but 
then the objects which are varied must not all be entirely 
new. Novelty and variety, joined, fatigue the mind. Either 
we remain passive at the show, or else we fatigue ourselves 
with ineffectual activity. 

A few years ago, a gentleman* brought two Eskimaux to 
to London — he wished to amuse, and at the same time to as- 
tonish, them with the great magnificence of the metropolis. 
For this purpose, after having equipped them like English gen- 
tlemen, he took them out one morning to walk through the 
streets of London. They walked for several hours in silence ; 
they expressed neither pleasure nor admiration at any thing 
which they saw. When their walk was ended, they appear- 
ed uncommonly melancholy and stupified. As soon as they 
got home, they sat down with their elbows upon their knees, 
and hid their faces between their hands. The only words 
they could be brought to utter, were, " Too much smoke — too 
much noise — too much houses — too much men — too much eve- 
ry thing !" 

Some people who attend public lectures upon natural philo- 
sophy, with the expectation of being much amused and in- 
structed, go home with sensations similar to those of the poor 
Eskimaux ; they feel that they have had too much of every 
thing. The lecturer has not time to explain his terms, or to 
repeat them till they are distinct in the memory of his audi- 
ence.! To children, every mode of instruction must be hurt- 
ful which fatigues attention ; therefore, a skilful preceptor 
will, as much as possible, avoid the manner of teaching, to 
which the public lecturer is in some degree compelled by his 
situation. A private preceptor, who undertakes the instruc- 
tion of several pupils in the same family, will examine with 
care the different habits and tempers of his pupils ; ^nd he 
will have full leisure to adapt his instructions peculiarity to 
each. 

There are some general observations, which apply to all un- 
derstandings ; these we shall first enumerate, and we may af- 
terwards examine what distinctions should be made for pupils 
of different tempers of dispositions. 



* Major Cartwright. See his Journal, &c. 
t V. Chapter on Mechanics. 



36 PRACTICAL EUUCATIOK. 

Besides distinctness and accuracy in the language which 
we use, besides care to produce but few ideas or terms that 
are new in our first lessons, we must exercise attention only 
during very short periods. In the beginning of every science 
pupils have much laborious work ; we should therefore allow 
them time; we should repress our own impatience when they 
appear to be slow in comprehending reasons, or in seizing 
analogies. We often expect, that those whom we are teach- 
ing should know some things intuitively, because these may 
have been so long known to us that we forget how we learn- 
ed them. We may from habit learn to pass with extraordi- 
nary velocity from one idea to another. " Some often 
repeated processes of reasoning or invention," says Mr. Stew- 
art, " may be carried on so quickly in the mind, that w r e may 
not be conscious of them ourselves." Yet we easily convince 
ourselves that this rapid facility of thought is purely the re- 
sult of practice, by observing the comparatively slow pro- 
gress of our understandings in subjects to which we have not 
been accustomed: the progress of the mind is there so slow f 
that we can count every step. 

We are disposed to think that those must be naturally slow 
and stupid, who do not perceive the resemblances between 
objects which strike us, we say, at the first glance. But wiiat 
we call the first glance is frequently the fiftieth : we have got 
the things completely by heart ; all the parts are known to us, 
and we are at leisure to compare and judge. A reasonable 
preceptor will not expect from his pupils two efforts of atten- 
tion at the same instant ; he will not require them at once to 
learn terms by heart, and to compare the objects which those 
terms represent ; he will repeat his terms till they are thor- 
oughly fixed in the memory ; he will repeat his reasoning till 
the chain of ideas is completely formed. 

Repetition makes all operations easy ; even the fatigue of 
thinking diminishes by habit. That we may not increase the 
labour of the mind unseasonably, we should watch for the 
moment when habit has made one lesson easy, and when we 
may go forward a new step. In teaching the children at the 
House of Industry at Munich to spin, Count Rumford wisely 
ordered that they should be made perfect in one motion be- 
fore any other was shown to them : at first they were allowed 
only to move the wheel by the treadle with their feet ; when, 
after sufficient practice, the foot became perfect in its lesson, 
the hands were set to work, and the children were allowed to 
begin to spin with coarse materials. It is said that these chil- 
dren made remarkable good spinners. Madame de Genlis 
applied the same principle in teaching Adela to play upon the 
harp.* 

* V. Adela and Theodore. , 



ATTENTION. 57 

In the first attempts to learn any new bodily exercise, as 
fencing or dancing, persons are not certain what muscles they 
must use, and what may be left at rest ; they generally em- 
ploy those of which they have the most ready command, but 
these may not always be the muscles which are really want- 
ed in the new operation. The simplest thing appears diffi- 
cult, tillj by practice, we have associated the various slight 
motions which ought to be combined. We feel, that from 
want of use, our motions are not obedient to our will, and to 
supply this defect, we exert more strength and activity than is 
requisite. " It does not require strength ; you need not use so 
much force; you need not take so much pains ;" we frequently 
say to those who are making the first painful awkward attempts 
at some simple operation. Can any thing appear more easy 
than knitting, when we look at the dexterous, rapid motions 
of an experienced practitioner ? But let a gentleman take up 
a lady's knitting needles, and knitting appears to him, and to 
all the spectators, one of the most difficult and laborious op- 
erations imaginable. A lady who is learning to work with a 
tambour needle, puts her head down close to the tambour 
frame, the colour comes into her face, she strains her eyes, all 
her faculties are exerted, and perhaps she works at the rate 
of three links a minute. A week afterwards, probably, prac- 
tice has made the work perfectly easy ; the same lady goes 
rapidly on with her work ; she can talk and laugh, and per- 
haps even think, whilst she works. She has now discovered 
that a number of the motions, and a great portion of that at- 
tention which she thought necessary to this mighty operation, 
may be advantageously spared. 

In a similar manner, in the exercise of our minds upon sub- 
jects that are new to us, we generally exert more attention 
than is necessary or serviceable, and we consequently soon 
fatigue ourselves without any advantage. Children, to whom 
many subjects are new, are often fatigued by these overstrain- 
ed and misplaced efforts. In these circumstances, a tutor 
should relieve the attention by introducing indifferent subjects 
of conversation : he can, by showing no anxiety himself, ei- 
ther in his manner or countenance, relieve his pupil from any 
apprehension of his displeasure, or of his contempt ; he can 
represent that the object before them is not a matter of life 
and death ; that if the child does not succeed in the first, tri- 
als, he will not be disgraced in the opinion of any of his 
friends ; that by perseverance he will certainly conquer the 
difficulty ; that it is of little consequence whether he under- 
stands the thing in question to-day or to-morrow ; these con- 
siderations will calm the over-anxious pupil's agitation, and 



58 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

whether he succeed or not, he will not suffer such a degree of 
pain as to disgust him in his first attempts. 

Besides 1 the command which we, by this prudent manage- 
ment, obtain over the pupil's mind, we shall also prevent him 
from acquiring any of those awkward gestures and involun- 
tary motions which are sometimes practised to relieve the 
pain of attention. 

Dr. Darwin observes, that when we experience any dis- 
agreeable sensations, we endeavour to procure ourselves tem- 
porary relief by motions of those muscles and limbs which 
are most habitually obedient to our will. This observation 
extends to mental as well as to bodily pain ; thus persons in 
violent grief wring their hands and convulse their countenan- 
ces ; those who are subject to the petty, but acute miseries of 
false shame, endeavour to relieve themselves by awkward 
gestures and continual motions. A plough-boy, when he is 
brought into the presence of those whom he thinks his superi- 
ors, endeavours to relieve himself from the uneasy sensations 
of false shame, by twirling his hat upon his fingers, and by 
various uncouth gestures. Men who think a great deal, some- 
times acquire habitual awkward gestures, to relieve the pain 
of intense thought. 

When attention first becomes irksome to children, they 
mitigate the mental pain by wrinkling their brows, or they 
fidget and put themselves into strange attitudes. These odd 
motions, which at first are voluntary, after they have been 
frequently associated with certain states of mind, constantly 
recur involuntarily with those feelings or ideas with which 
they have been connected. For instance, a boy, who has 
been used to buckle and unbuckle his shoe, when he repeats 
his lesson by rote, cannot repeat his lesson without performing 
this operation ; it becomes a sort of artificial memory, which 
is necessary to prompt his recollective faculty. When chil- 
dren have a variety of tricks of this sort, they are of little 
consequence ; but when they have acquired a few constant 
and habitual motions, whilst they think, or repeat, or listen, 
these should be attended to, and the habits should be broken, 
otherwise these young people will appear, when they grow 
up, awkward and ridiculous in their manners ; and, what is 
worse, perhaps their thoughts and abilities will be too much 
in the power of external circumstances. Addison represents, 
with much humour, the case of a poor man who had the 
habit of twirling a bit of thread round his finger ; the thread 
was accidentally broken, and the orator stood mute. 

We once saw a gentleman get up to speak in a public assem- 
bly, provided with a paper of notes written in pencil : during 
the exordium of his speech, he thumbed his notes with inces- 
sant agitation ; when he looked at the paper, he found that the 



ATTENTION. 59 

words were totally obliterated ; he was obliged to apologize 
to his audience ; and, after much hesitation, sat down abash- 
ed. A father would be sorry to see his son in such a pre- 
dicament. 

To prevent children from acquiring such awkward tricks 
whilst they are thinking, we should in the first place take care 
not to make them attend for too long a time together, then the 
pain of attention will not be so violent as to compel them to 
use these strange modes of relief. Bodily exercise should 
immediately follow that entire state of rest, in which our 
pupils ought to keep themselves whilst they attend. The first 
symptoms of any awkward trick should be watched ; they 
are easily prevented by early care from becoming habitual. 
If any such tricks have been acquired, and if the pupil cannot 
exert his attention in common, unless certain contortions are 
permitted, we should attempt the cure either by sudden slight 
bodily pain, or by a total suspension of all the employments 
with which these bad habits are associated. If a boy could 
not read without swinging his head like a pendulum, we 
should rather prohibit him from reading for some time, than 
suffer him to grow up with this ridiculous habit. But in con- 
versation, whenever opportunities occur of telling him any 
thing in which he is particularly interested, we should refuse 
to gratity his curiosity, unless he keeps himself perfectly still. 
The excitement here would be sufficient to conquer the habit. 
Whatever is connected with pain or pleasure commands 
our attention ; but to make this general observation useful in 
education, we must examine what degrees of stimulus are 
necessary for different pupils, and in different circumstances. 
We have formerly observed,* that it is not prudent early to 
use violent or continual stimulus, either of a painful or a pleas- 
urable nature, to excite children to application, because we 
should by an intemperate use of these, weaken the mind, and 
because we may with a little patience obtain all we wish 
without these expedients. Besides these reasons, there is 
another potent argument against using violent motives to ex- 
cite attention ; such motives frequently disturb and dissipate 
the very attention which they attempt to fix. If a child be 
threatened with severe punishment, or flattered with the pro- 
mise of some delicious reward, in order to induce his per- 
formance of any particular task, he desires instantly to per- 
form the task ; but this desire will not ensure his success : un- 
less he has previously acquired the habit of voluntary exer- 
tion, he will not be able to turn his mind from his ardent 
wishes, even to the means of accomplishing them. He will 



Chapter on Tasks. 



♦30 1'llACTlCAL EDUCATION. 

be in the situation of Alnaschar in the Arabian tales, who, 
whilst he dreamt of his future grandeur, forgot his immediate 
business. The greater his hope or fear, the greater the diffi- 
culty of his employing himself. 

To teach any new habit or art, we must not employ any 
alarming excitements : small, certain, regularly recurring mo- 
tives, which interest, but which do not distract the mind, are 
evidently the best. The ancient inhabitants of Minorca were 
said to be the best slingers in the world ; when they were 
children, every morning what they were to eat was slightly 
suspended from high poles, and they were obliged to throw 
down their breakfasts with their slings from the places where 
they were suspended, before they could satisfy their hunger. 
The motive seems to have been here well proportioned to the 
effect which was required ; it could not be any great misfor- 
tune to a boy to go without his breakfast ; but as this motive 
returned every morning, it became sufficiently serious to the 
hungry slingers. 

It is impossible to explain this subject so as to be of use, 
without descending to minute particulars. When a mother 
says to her little daughter, as she places on the table before 
her a bunch of ripe cherries, " Tell me, my dear, how many 
cherries are there, and I will give them to you ?" The child's 
attention is fixed instantly ; there is a sufficient motive, not a 
motive which excites any violent passions, but which raises just 
such a degree of hope as is necessary to produce attention. 
The little girl, if she knows from experience that her mother's 
promise will be kept, and that her own patience is likely to 
succeed, counts the cherries carefully, has her reward, and 
upon the next similar trial she will, from this success, be still 
more disposed to exert her attention. The pleasure of eating 
cherries, associated with the pleasure of success, will balance 
the pain of a few moments prolonged application, and by de- 
grees the cherries may be withdrawn, the association of pleas- 
ure will remain. Objects or thoughts, that have been asso- 
ciated with pleasure, retain the power of pleasing ; as the 
needle touched by the loadstone acquires polarity, and retains 
it long after the loadstone is withdrawn. 

Whenever attention is habitually raised by the power of 
association, we should be careful to withdraw all the excite- 
ments that were originally used, because these are now un- 
necessary ; and, as we have formerly observed, the steady 
rule, with respect to stimulus, should be to give the least pos- 
sible quantity that will produce the effect we want. Success 
is a great pleasure ; as soon as children become sensible to 
this pleasure, that is to say, when they have tasted it two or 
three times, they will exert their attention merely with the 
hope of succeeding. We have seen a little boy of three years 



ATTENTION. 61 

old, frowning with attention for several minutes together, 
whilst he was trying to clasp and unclasp a lady's bracelet j 
his whole soul was intent upon the business ; he neither saw 
nor heard any thing else that passed in the room, though sev- 
eral people were talking, and some happened to be looking 
at him. The pleasure of success, when he clasped the brace- 
let, was quite sufficient ; he looked for no praise, though he 
was perhaps pleased with the sympathy that was shown in 
his success. Sympathy is a better reward for young child- 
ren in such circumstances than praise, because it does not ex- 
cite vanity, and it is connected with benevolent feelings ; be- 
sides, it is not so violent a stimulus as applause. 

Instead of increasing excitements to produce attention, we 
may vary them, which will have just the same effect. When 
sympathy fails, try curiosity ; when curiosity fails, try praise ; 
when praise begins to lose its effect, try blame ; and when 
you go back again to sympathy, you will find that, after this 
interval, it will have recovered all its original power. Doctor 
Darwin, who has the happy art of illustrating, from the most 
familiar circumstances in real life, the abstract theories of 
philosophy, gives us the following picturesque instance of the 
use of varying motives to prolong exertion. 

" A little boy, who was tired of walking, begged of his papa 
to carry him. " Here," says the reverend doctor, " ride upon 
my gold headed cane ;" and the pleased child, putting it be- 
tween his legs, galloped away with delight. Here the aid of 
another sensorial power, that of pleasurable sensation, super- 
added power to exhausted volition, which could otherwise 
only have been excited by additional pain, as by the lash of 
slavery."* 

Alexander the Great one day saw a poor man carrying 
upon his shoulders a heavy load of silver for the royal camp ?. 
the man tottered under his burden, and was ready to give up 
the point from fatigue. " Hold on, friend, the rest of the way, 
and carry it to your own tent, for it is yours," said Alexan- 
der. 

There are some people, who have the power of exciting 
others to great mental exertions, not by the promise of spe- 
cific rewards, or by the threats of any punishment, but by 
the ardent ambition which they inspire, by the high value 
which is set upon their love and esteem. When we have 
formed a high opinion of a friend, his approbation becomes 
necessary to our own self-complacency, and we think no la- 
bour too great to satisfy our attachment. Our exertions are 
not fatiguing, because they are associated with all the pleasu- 



* Zoonomia, vol. i. page 435, 



62 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

rable sensations of affection, self-complacency, benevolence, 
and liberty. These feelings, in youth, produce all the virtu- 
ous enthusiasm characteristic of great minds ; even childhood 
is capable of it in some degree, as those parents well know, 
who have ever enjoyed the attachment of a grateful affec- 
tionate child. Those, who neglect to cultivate the affections 
of their pupils, will never be able to excite them to " noble 
ends," by " noble means." Theirs will be the dominion of 
fear, from which reason will emancipate herself, and from 
which pride will yet more certainly revolt. 

If Henry the Fourth of France had been reduced like Di- 
onysius the tyrant of Syracuse, to earn his bread as a school- 
master, what a different preceptor, he would probably have 
made! Dionysius must have been hated by his scholars as 
much as by his subjects, for it is said, that " he* practised upon 
children that tyranny which he could no longer exercise over 
men." 

The ambassador, who found Henry the Fourth playing up- 
on the carpet with his children, would probably have trusted 
his own children, if he had any, to the care of such an affec- 
tionate tutor. 

Henry the Fourth would have attached his pupils whilst he 
instructed them; they would have exerted themselves because 
they could not have been happy without his esteem. Henry's 
courtiers, or rather his friends, for though he was a king he 
had friends, sometimes expressed surprise at their own disin- 
terestedness : " This king pays us with words," said they, 
" and yet we are satisfied !" Sully, when he was only Baron 
de Rosny, and before he had any hopes of being a duke, was 
once in a passion with the king his master, and half resolved 
to leave him: " But I don't know how it was," says the honest 
minister, " with all his faults, there is something about Henry 
which I found I could not leave; and when I met him again, 
a few words made me forget all my causes of discontent." 

Children are more easily attached than courtiers, and full 
as easily rewarded. When once this generous desire of affec- 
tion and esteem is raised in the mind, their exertions seem to 
be universal and spontaneous : children are then no longer 
like machines, which require to be wound up regularly to 
perform certain revolutions ; they are animated with a living 
principle, which directs all that it inspires. 

We have endeavoured to point out the general excitements, 
and the general precautions, to be used in cultivating the pow- 
er of attention ; it may be expected, that we should more 
particularly apply these to the characters of different pupils. 



* Cicero 



ATTENTION. 63 

We shall not here examine whether there be any original dif- 
ference of character or intellect, because this would lead into 
a wide theoretical discussion 5 a difference in the temper and 
talents of children early appears, and some practical remarks 
may be of service to correct defects, or to improve abilities, 
whether we suppose them to be natural or acquired. The 
first differences which a preceptor observes between his pu- 
pils, when he begins to teach them, are perhaps scarcely mark- 
ed so strongly as to strike the careless spectator ; but in a few 
years these varieties are apparent to every eye. This seems 
to prove, that during the interval the power of education has 
operated strongly to increase the original propensities. The 
quick and slow, the timid and presumptuous, should be early 
instructed so as to correct as much as possible their several 
defects. 

The manner in which children are first instructed must 
tend either to increase or diminish their timidity, or their con- 
fidence in themselves, to encourage them to undertake great 
things, or to rest content with limited acquirements. Young 
people, who have found from experience, that they cannot re- 
member or understand one half of what is forced upon their 
attention, become extremely diffident of their own capacity, 
and they will not undertake as much even as they are able 
to perform. With timid tempers, we should therefore begin, 
by expecting but little from each effort, but whatever is at- 
tempted, should be certainly within their attainment; success 
will encourage the most stupid humility. It should be care- 
fully pointed out to diffident children, that attentive patience 
can do as much as quickness of intellect. If they perceive 
that time makes all the difference between the quick and the 
slow, they will be induced to persevere. The transition of at- 
tention from one subject to another is difficult to some chil- 
dren, to others it is easy. If all be expected to do the same 
things in an equal period of time, the slow will absolutely 
give up the competition ; but, on the contrary, if they are al- 
lowed time, they will accomplish their purposes. We have 
been confirmed in our belief of this doctrine by experiments. 
The same problems have been frequently given to children of 
different degrees of quickness, and though some succeeded 
much more quickly than others, all the individuals in the fam- 
ily have persevered till they have solved the questions ; and 
the timid seem to have been more encouraged by this practi- 
cal demonstration of the infallibility of persevering attention, 
than by any other methods which have been tried. When, 
after a number of small successful trials, they have acquired 
some share of confidence in themselves, when they are certain 
of the possibility of their performing any given operations, we 
may then press them a little as to velocity. When they are 



64 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

well acquainted with any set of ideas, we may urge them to 
quick transition of attention from one to another; but if we 
insist upon this rapidity of transition, before they are thor- 
oughly acquainted with each idea in the assemblage, we shall 
only increase their timidity and hesitation ; we shall confound 
their understandings, and depress their ambition. 

It is of consequence to distinguish between slow and slug- 
gish attention. Sometimes children appear stupid and heavy, 
when they are absolutely exhausted by too great efforts 
of attention ; at other times, they have something like the same 
dulness of aspect, before they have had any thing to fatigue 
them, merely from their not having yet awakened themselves 
to business. We must be certain of our pupil's state of mind 
before we proceed. If he be incapacitated from fatigue, let 
him rest ; if he be torpid, rouse him with a rattling peal of 
thunder ; but be sure that you have not, as it has been said of 
Jupiter,* recourse to your thunder only when you are in the 
wrong. Some preceptors scold when they cannot explain, 
and grow angry in proportion to the fatigue they see expres- 
sed in the countenance of their unhappy pupils. If a timid 
child foresees that an explanation will probably end in a phil- 
lipic, he cannot fix his attention ; he is anticipating the evil of 
your anger, instead of listening to your demonstrations ; and 
he says, " Yes, yes, I see, I know, I understand," with trem- 
bling eagerness, whilst, through the mist and confusion of his 
fears, he can scarcely see or hear, much less understand, any 
thing. If you mistake the confusion and fatigue of terror for 
inattention or indolence, and press your pupil to further exer- 
tions, you will confirm, instead of curing, his stupidity. You 
must diminish his fear before you can increase his attention. 
With children who are thus, from timid anxiety to please, dis- 
posed to exert their faculties too much, it is obvious that no 
excitation should be used, but every playful, every affection- 
ate means should be employed to dissipate their apprehen- 
sions. 

It is more difficult to manage with those who have sluggish, 
than with those who have timid, attention. Indolent children 
have not usually so lively a taste for pleasure as others have ; 
they do not seem to hear or see so quickly ; they are content 
with a little enjoyment ; they have scarcely any ambition ; 
they seem to prefer ease to all sorts of glory ; they have little 
voluntary exertion ; and the pain of attention is to them so 
great, that they would preferably endure the pain of shame, 
and of all the accumulated punishments which are commonly 
devised for them by the vengeance of their exasperated tu- 



* Lucian. 



ATTENTION. 65 

tors. Locke notices this listless, lazy humour in children j 
he classes it under the head " Sauntering ;" and he divides 
saunterers into two species ; those who saunter only at their 
books and tasks ; and those who saunter at play and every 
thing. The book-saunterers have only an acute, the others 
have a chronic disease ; the one is easily cured, the other dis- 
ease will cost more time and pains. 

If, by some unlucky management, a vivacious child ac- 
quires a dislike to literary application, he may appear at his 
books with all the stupid apathy of a dunce. In this state of 
literary dereliction, we should not force books and tasks of 
any sort upon him ; we should rather watch him when he is 
eager at amusements of his own selection, observe to what his 
attention turns, and cultivate his attention upon that subject, 
whatever it may be. He may be led to think, and to ac- 
quire knowledge upon a variety of subjects, without sitting 
down to read ; and thus he may form habits of attention and 
application, which will be associated with pleasure. When 
he returns to booKS, he will find that he understands a variety 
of things in them which before appeared incomprehensible ; 
they will " give him back the image of his mind," and he will 
like them as he likes pictures. 

As long as a child shews energy upon any occasion, there 
is hope. If he " lend his little soul"* to whipping a top, there 
is no danger of his being a dunce. When Alcibiades was a 
child, he was one day playing at dice with other boys in the 
street ; a loaded wagon came up just as it was his time to throw. 
At first he called to the driver to stop, but the wagoner would 
not stop his horses ; all the boys, except Alcibiades, ran away, 
but Alcibiades threw himself upon his face, directly before 
the horses, and stretching himself out, bid the wagoner drive 
on if he pleased. Perhaps, at the time when he showed this 
energy about a game at dice, Alcibiades might have been a 
saunterer at his book, and a foolish schoolmaster might have 
made him a dunce. 

Locke advises that children, who are too much addicted to 
what is called play, should be surfeited with it, that they may 
return to business with a better appetite. But this advice 
supposes that play has been previously interdicted, or that it 
is something pernicious : we have endeavoured to show that 
play is nothing but a change of employment, and that the at- 
tention may be exercised advantageously upon a variety of 
subjects which are not called Tasks.! 



* " And lends his little soul at every stroke." Virg. 
t V. Chapter II. on Tasks. 



66 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

With those who shew chronic listlessness, Locke advises 
that we should use every sort of stimulus ; praise, amusement, 
fine clothes, eating ; any thing that, will make them bestir 
themselves. He argues, that as there appears a deficiency 
of vigour, we have no reason to fear excess of appetite for 
any of these things ; nay, further still, where none of these 
will act, he advises compulsory bodily exercise. If we can- 
not, he says, make sure of the invisible attention of the mind, 
we may at least get something done, prevent the habit of total 
idleness, and perhaps make the children desire to exchange 
labour of body for labour of mind. These expedients will, 
we fear, be found rather palliative than effectual; if, by 
forcing children to bodily exercise, that becomes disagreea- 
ble, they may prefer labour of the mind ; but, in making this 
exchange, or bargain, they are sensible that they choose the 
least of two evils. The evil of application is diminished only 
by comparison in their estimation ; they will avoid it when- 
ever they are at liberty. The love of eating, of fine clothes, 
&c. if they stimulate a slothful child, must be the ultimate ob- 
ject of his exertions ; he will consider the performance of his 
task merely as a painful condition on his part. Still the as- 
sociation of pain with literature continues ; it is then impossi- 
ble that he should love it. There is no active principle with- 
in him, no desire for knowledge excited ; his attention is 
forced, it ceases the moment the external force is withdrawn. 
He drudges to earn his cream bowl duly set, but he will 
stretch his lubber length the moment his task is done.' 

There is another class of children opposed to saunterers, 
whom we may denominate volatile geniuses. They show a 
vast deal of quickness and vivacity; they understand almost 
before a tutor can put his ideas into words ; they observe a 
variety of objects, but they do not connect their observations, 
and the very rapidity with which they seize an explanation, 
prevents them from thoroughly comprehending it ; they are 
easily disturbed by external objects when they are thinking. 
As they have great sensibility, their associations are strong 
and various ; their thoughts branch off into a thousand beau- 
tiful, but useless ramifications. Whilst you are attempting to 
instruct them upon one subject, they are inventing, perhaps, 
upon another; or they are following a train of ideas suggested 
by something you have said, but foreign to your business. 
They are more pleased with the discovery of resemblances, 
than with discrimination of difference; the one costs them 
more time and attention than the other : they are apt to say 
witty things, and to strike out sparks of invention ; but they 
have not commonly the patience to form exact judgments, or 
to bring their first inventions to perfection. When they be- 
gin the race, every body expects that they should outstrip all 



ATTENTION. 67 

competitors ; but it is often seen that slower rivals reach the 
goal before them. The predictions formed of pupils of this 
temperament, vary much, according to the characters of their 
tutors. A slow man is provoked by their dissipated vivacity, 
and, unable to catch or fix their attention, prognosticates that 
they will never have sufficient application to learn any thing. 
This prophecy, under certain tuition, would probably be ac- 
complished. The want of sympathy between a slow tutor 
and a quick child, is a great disadvantage to both ; each in- 
sists upon going his own pace, and his own way, and these 
ways are perhaps diametrically opposite. Even in forming a 
judgment of the child's attention, the tutor, who is not ac- 
quainted with the manner in which his pupil goes to work, 
is liable to frequent mistakes. Children are sometimes 
suspected of not having listened to what has been said to 
them, when they cannot exactly repeat the words that they 
have heard ; they often ask questions, and make observa- 
tions, which seem quite foreign to the present business ; but 
this is not always a proof that their minds are absent, or that 
their attention is dissipated. Their answers often appear to 
be far from the point, because they suppress their interme- 
diate ideas, and give only the result of their thoughts. This 
may be inconvenient to those who teach them ; but this habit 
sufficiently proves that these children are not deficient in at- 
tention. To cure them of the fault which they have, we 
should not accuse them falsely of another. But it may be 
questioned whether this be a fault; it is absolutely necessary, 
in many processes of the mind, to suppress a number of inter- 
mediate ideas. Life, if this were not practised, would be too 
short for those who think, and much too short for those who 
speak. When somebody asked Pyrrhus which of two mu- 
sicians he liked the best, he answered, " Polysperchon is 
the best general." This would appear to be the absurd 
answer of an absent person, or of a fool, if we did not 
consider the ideas that are implied, as well as those which 
are expressed. 

March 5th, 1796. To-day, at dinner, a lady observed that 
Nicholson, Williamson, Jackson, &c. were names which orig- 
inally meant the sons of Nicholas, William, Jack, &c. A 

boy who was present, H , added, with a very grave face, 

as soon as she had finished speaking, " Yes, ma'am, Tydides." 
His mother asked him what he could mean by this absent 

speech? H calmly repeated, " Ma'am, yes ; because I 

think it is like Tydides." His brother S eagerly inter- 
posed, to supply the intermediate ideas ; " Yes, indeed, 

mother," cried he, " H is not absent, because dcs, in 

Greek, means the son of (the race of.) Tydides is the son of 
Tydeus, as Jackson is the son of Jack." In this instance, 



63 Practical education. 

H was not absent, though he did not make use of a suf- 
ficient number of words to explain his ideas. 

August, 1 796. L , when he returned home, after some 

months absence, entertained his brothers and sisters with a 
new play, which he had learned at Edinburgh. He told 
them, that when he struck the table with his hand, every per- 
son present, was instantaneously to remain fixed in the atti- 
tudes in which they should be when the blow was given. 
The attitudes in which some of the little company were fixed, 
occasioned much diversion ; but in speaking of this new play 
afterwards, they had no name for it. Whilst they were think- 
ing of a name for it, H exclaimed, " The Gorgon !" It 

was immediately agreed that this was a good name for the 
play, and H , upon this occasion, was perfectly intelligi- 
ble, without expressing all the intermediate ideas. 

Good judges form an accurate estimate of the abilities of 
those who converse with them, by what they omit, as well as 
by what they say. If any one can show that he also has 
been in Arcadia, he is sure of being well received, without 
producing minutes of his journey. In the same manner we 
should judge of children ; if they arrive at certain conclusions 
in reasoning, we may be satisfied that they have taken all the 
necessary previous steps. We need not question their atten- 
tion upon subjects where they give groofs of invention; they 
must have remembered well, or they could not invent ; they 
must have attended well, or they could not have remembered. 
Nothing wearies a quick child more than to be forced slowly 
to retrace his own thoughts, and to repeat the words of a dis- 
course to prove that he has listened to it. A tutor, who is 
slow in understanding the ideas of his vivacious pupil, gives 
him so much trouble and pain, that he grows silent, from find- 
ing it not worth while to speak. It is for this reason, that chil- 
dren appear stupid and silent, with some people, and sprightly 
and talkative with others. Those who hope to talk to children 
with any effect, must, as Rousseau observes, be able to hear 
as well as ta-speak. M. de Segrais, who was deaf, was much 
in the right to decline being preceptor to the Duke de Maine. 
A deaf preceptor would certainly make a child dumb. 

To win the attention of vivacious children, we must some- 
times follow them in their zigzag course, and even press them 
to the end of their own train of thought. They will be con- 
tent when they have obtained a full hearing ; then they will 
have leisure to discover that what they were in such haste to 
utter, was not so well worth saying as they imagined ; that 
their bright ideas often, when steadily examined by them- 
selves, fade into absurdities. 

" Where does this path lead to ? Can't we get over this 
stile ? May I only go into this wood ?" exclaims an active 



ATTENTION. 69 

child, when he is taken out to walk. Every path appears 
more delightful than the straight road ; but let him try the 
paths, they will perhaps end in disappointment, and then his 
imagination will be corrected. Let him try his own experi- 
ments, then he will be ready to try yours ; and if yours suc- 
ceed better than his own, you will secure his confidence. 
After a child has talked on for some time, till he comes to the 
end of his ideas, then he will perhaps listen to what you have 
to say; and if he finds it better than what he has been say- 
ing himself, he will voluntarily give you his attention the next 
time you begin to speak. 

Vivacious children are peculiarly susceptible of blame and 
praise ; we have, therefore, great power over their attach- 
ment, if we manage these excitements properly. These chil- 
dren should not be praised for their happy hits, their first* 
glances should not be extolled ; but, on the contrary, they 
should be rewarded with universal approbation when they 
give proofs of patient industry, when they bring any thing to 
perfection. No one can bring any thing to perfection without 
long continued attention ; and industry and perseverance pre- 
suppose attention. Proofs of any of these qualities may 
therefore satisfy us as to the pupil's capacity and habits of 
attention ; we need not stand by to see the attention exer- 
cised, the things produced are sufficient evidence. Buffon 
tells us that he wrote his Epoques de la Nature over eighteen 
times before he could perfect it to his taste. The high finish 
of his composition is sufficient evidence to intelligent readers, 
that he exerted long continued attention upon the work ; they 
do not require to have the eighteen copies produced. 

Bacon supposes, that for every disease of the mind, specific 
remedies might be found in appropriate studies and exercises. 
Thus, for " bird-witted" children he prescribes the study of 
mathematics, because, in mathematical studies, the attention 
must be fixed ; the least intermission of thought breaks the 
whole chain of reasoning, their labour is lost, and they must 
begin their demonstration again. This principle is excellent ; 
but to apply it advantageously, we should choose moments 
when a mathematical demonstration is interesting to children 
else we have not sufficient motive to excite them to commence 
the demonstration ; they will perceive, that they lose all their 
labour if their attention is interrupted; but how shall we 
make them begin to attend ? There are a variety of subjects, 
which are interesting to children, to which we may apply 
Bacon's principle ; for instance, a child is eager to hear a 
story which you are going to tell him ; you may exercise his 



Apercue=. 



70 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

attention hy your manner of telling this story ; you may em- 
ploy with advantage the beautiful speech called suspension: 
but you must take care, that the hope which is long deferred 
be at last gratified. The young critics will look back when 
your story is finished, and will examine whether their atten- 
tion has been wasted, or whether all the particulars to which 
it was directed were essential. Though in amusing stories 
we recommend the figure called suspension,* w'e do not re- 
commend its use in explanations. Our explanations should 
be put into as few words as possible : the closer the connec- 
tion of ideas, the better. When we say, allow time to under- 
stand your explanations, we mean, allow time between each 
idea, do not fill up the interval with words. Never, by way of 
gaining time, pay in sixpences ; this is the last resource of a 
bankrupt. 

We formerly observed that a preceptor, in his first lessons 
on any new subject, must submit to the drudgery of repeating 
his terms and his reasoning, until these are sufficiently fami- 
liar to his pupils. He must, however, proportion the number 
of his repetitions to the temper and habits of his pupils, else 
he will weary, instead of strengthening, the attention. When 
a thing is clear, let him never try to make it clearer ; when a 
thing is understood, not a word more of exemplification should 
be added. To mark precisely the moment when the pupil 
understands what is said, the moment when he is master of 
the necessary ideas, and, consequently, the moment when re- 
petition should cease, is, perhaps, the most difficult thing in 
the art of teaching. The countenance, the eye, the voice, 
and manner of the pupil, mark this instant to an observing 
preceptor; but a preceptor, who is absorbed in his own ideas, 
■will never think of looking in his pupil's face ; he will go on 
with his routine of explanation, whilst his once lively, atten- 
tive pupil, exhibits opposite to him the picture of stupified 
fatigue. Quick, intelligent children, who have frequently 
found that lessons are reiterated by a patient but injudicious 
tutor, will learn a careless mode of listening at intervals ; 
they will say to themselves, " Oh I shall hear this again !" 
And if any stray thought comes across their minds, they 
will not scruple to amuse themselves, and will afterwards ask 
for a repetition of the words or ideas which they missed dur- 
ing this excursion of fancy. When they hear the warning 
advertisement of "certainly for the last time this season," 
they will deem it time enough to attend to the performance. 
To cure them of this presumption in favour of our patience, 
and of their own superlative quickness, we should press that 



* Deiaology. 



ATTENTION. 71 

quickness to its utmost speed. Whenever we call for their 
attention, let it be on subjects highly interesting or amusing, 
and let us give them but just sufficient time with their fullest 
exertion to catch our words and ideas. As these quick gen- 
tlemen are proud of their rapidity of apprehension, this 
method will probably secure their attention, they will dread 
the disgrace of not understanding what is said, and they will 
feel that they cannot understand unless they exert prompt, 
ikigorous, unremitted attention. 

The Duchess of Kingston used to complain that she could 
never acquire any knowledge, because she never could meet 
with any body who could teach her any thing " in two 
words." Her Grace felt the same sort of impatience which 
was expressed by the tyrant who expected to find a royal 
road to Geometry. 

Those who believe themselves endowed with genius, ex- 
pect to find a royal road in every science shorter, and less 
laborious, than the beaten paths of industry. Their expecta- 
tions are usually in proportion to their ignorance ; they see 
to the summit only of one hill, and they do not suspect the 
Alps that will arise as they advance : but as children become 
less presumptuous, as they acquire more knowledge, we may 
bear with their juvenile impatience, whilst we take measures 
to enlarge continually their sphere of information. We 
should not, however, humour the attention of young people, 
by teaching them always in the mode which we know suits 
their temper best. Vivacious pupils should, from time to 
time, be accustomed to an exact enumeration of particulars ; 
and we should take opportunities to convince them, that an 
orderly connection of proofs, and a minute observation of ap- 
parent trifles, are requisite to produce the lively descriptions, 
great discoveries, and happy inventions, which pupils of this 
disposition are ever prone to admire with enthusiasm. They 
will learn not to pass over old things, when they perceive that 
these may lead to something new ; and they will even submit 
to sober attention, when they feel that this is necessary even 
to the rapidity of genius. In the " Curiosities of Literature," 
there has been judiciously preserved a curious instance of 
literary patience ; the rough draught of that beautiful passage 
in Pope's translation of the Iliad which describes the parting 
of Hector and Andromache. The lines are in Pope's hand- 
writing, and his numerous corrections appear ; the lines which 
seem to the reader to have been struck off at a single happy 
stroke, are proved to have been touched and re-touched with 
the indefatigable attention of a great writer. The fragment, 
with all its climax of corrections, was shown to a young viva- 
cious poet of nine years old, as a practical lesson, to prove 
the necessity of patience to arrive at perfection. Similar ex- 



72 PRACTICAL EDUCATION - . 

amples, from real life, should be produced to young people at 
proper times ; the testimony of men of acknowledged abili- 
ties, of men whom they have admired for genius, will come 
with peculiar force in favour of application. Parents, well 
acquainted with literature, cannot be at a loss to find apposite 
illustrations. The Life of Franklin is an excellent example 
of persevering industry ; the variations in different editions of 
Voltaire's dramatic poetry, and in Pope's works, are worth 
examining. All Sir Joshua Reynolds's eloquent academical 
discourses enforce the doctrine of patience ; when he wants 
to prove to painters the value of continual energetic attention, 
he quotes from Livy the character of Philopcemen, one of the 
ablest generals of antiquity. So certain it is, that the same 
principle pervades all superior minds : whatever may be their 
pursuits, attention is the avowed primary cause of their suc- 
cess. These examples from the dead, should be well sup- 
ported by examples from amongst the living. In common 
life, occurrences can frequently be pointed out, in which at- 
tention and application are amply rewarded with success. 

It will encourage those who are interested in education, to 
observe, that two of the most difficult exercises of the mind 
can, by practice, be rendered familiar, even by persons 
whom we do not consider as possessed of superior talents. 
Abstraction and transition — abstraction, the power of with- 
drawing the attention from all external objects, and concen- 
trating it upon some particular set of ideas, we admire as one 
of the most difficult exercises of the philosopher. Abstrac- 
tion was formerly considered as such a difficult and painful 
operation, that it required perfect silence and solitude ; many 
ancient philosophers quarrelled with their senses, and shut 
themselves up in caves, to secure their attention from the dis- 
traction caused by external objects. But modern* philoso- 
phers have discovered, that neither caves nor lamps are essen- 
tial to the full and successful exercise of their mental powers. 
Persons of ordinary abilities, tradesmen and shop-keepers, in 
the midst of the tumult of a public city, in the noise of rumb- 
ling carts and rattling carriages, amidst the voices of a multi- 
tude of people talking upon various subjects, amidst the pro- 
voking interruptions of continual questions and answers, and 
in the broad glare of a hot sun, can command and abstract 
their attention so far as to calculate yards, ells, and nails, to 
cast up long sums in addition right to a farthing, and to make 
out multifarious bills with quick and unerring precision. In 
almost all the dining houses at Vienna, as a late traveller! in- 
forms us '* a bill of fare containing a vast collection of dishes 



V. Condillac Art de Penser. i Mr. Owen. 



ATTENTION. 73 

is written out, and the prices are affixed to each article. As 
the people of Vienna are fond of variety, the calculation at 
the conclusion of a repast would appear somewhat embar- 
rassing; this, however, is done by mechanical habit with 
great speed ; the custom is for the party who has dined to 
name the dishes, and the quantity of bread and wine. The 
keller who attends on this occasion, follows every article you 
name with the sum, which this adds to the calculation, and 
the whole is performed, to whatever amount, without ink or 
paper. It is curious to hear this ceremony, which is mutter 
ed with great gravity, yet performed with accuracy and 
despatch." 

We coolly observe, when we read these things, " Yes, this 
is all habit ; any body who had used himself to it might do 
the same things." Yet the very same power of abstracting 
the attention, when employed upon scientific and literary sub- 
jects, would excite our astonishment ; and we should, perhaps, 
immediately attribute it to superior original genius. We may 
surely educate children to this habit of abstracting the atten- 
tion, which we allow depends entirely upon practice. When 
we are very much interested upon any subject, we attend to 
it exclusively, and, without any effort, we surmount all petty 
interposing interruptions. W^hen we are reading an interest- 
ing book, twenty people may converse round about us, with- 
out our hearing one word that they say; when we are in a 
crowded playhouse, the moment we become interested in the 
play the audience vanish from our sight, and in the midst of 
various noises, we hear only the voices of the actors. 

In the same manner, children, by their eager looks and 
their unaffected absence to all external circumstances, show 
when they are thoroughly interested by any story that is told 
with eloquence suited to their age. When we would teach 
them to attend in the midst of noise and interruptions, we 
should begin by talking to them about things which we are 
sure will please them ; by degrees we may speak on less cap- 
tivating subjects, when we perceive that their habit of begin- 
ning to listen with an expectation of pleasure is formed. 
Whenever a child happens to be intent upon any favourite 
amusement, or when he is reading any very entertaining book, 
we may increase the busy hum around him, we may make what 
bustle we please, he will probably continue attentive ; it is 
useful therefore to give him such amusements and such books 
when there is a noise or bustle in the room, because then he 
will learn to disregard all interruptions; and when this habit 
is formed, he may even read less amusing books in the same 
company without being interrupted by the usual noises. 
10 



74 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

The power of abstracting our attention is universally al- 
lowed to be necessary to the successful labour of the under- 
standing : but we may further observe, that this abstraction is 
characteristic in some cases of heroism as well as of genius. 
Charles the Twelfth and Archimedes were very different 
men ; yet both, in similar circumstances, gave similar proofs 
of their uncommon power of abstracting their attention. 
" What has the bomb to do with what you are writing to Swe- 
den," said the hero to his pale secretary when a bomb burst 
through the roof of his apartment, and he continued to dictate 
his letter. Archimedes went on with his demonstration in the 
midst of a siege, and when a brutal soldier entered with a 
drawn sword, the philosopher only begged he might solve his 
problem before he was put to death. 

Presence of mind in danger, which is usually supposed to 
depend upon our quick perception of all the present circum- 
stances, frequently demands a total abstraction of our 
thoughts. In danger, fear is the motive which excites our ex- 
ertions ; but from all the ideas that fear naturally suggests, 
we must abstract our attention, or we shall not act with cour- 
age or prudence. In proportion to the violence of our terror, 
our voluntary exertion must be great to withdraw our thoughts 
from the present danger, and to recollect the means of es- 
cape. In some cases, where the danger has been associated 
with the use of certain methods of escape, we use these with- 
out deliberation, and consequently without any effort of at- 
tention ; as when we see any thing catch fire, we instantly 
throw water upon the flames to extinguish them. But in new- 
situations, where we have no mechanical courage, we must 
exert much voluntary, quick, abstract, attention, to escape 
from danger. 

When Lee, the poet, was confined in Bedlam, a friend went 
to visit him ; and finding that he could converse reasonably, 
or at least reasonably for a poet, imagined that Lee was cured 
of his madness. The poet offered to show him Bedlam. 
They went over this melancholy, medical prison, Lee moral- 
izing philosophically enough all the time to keep his compan- 
ion perfectly at ease. At length they ascended together 
to the top of the building; and, as they were both look- 
ing down from the perilous height, Lee seized his friend 
by the arm, " Let us immortalize ourselves !" he exclaimed ; 
" let us take this leap. We'll jump down together this instant." 
" Any man could jump down," said his friend, coolly ; " we 
should not immortalize ourselves by that leap ; but let us go 
down, and try if we can jump up again." The madman, 
struck with the idea of a more astonishing leap than that 
which he had himself proposed, yielded to this new impulse, 



ATTENTION. 75 

and his friend rejoiced to see him run down stairs full of a 
new project for securing immortality. 

Lee's friend, upon this occasion, showed rather absence 
than presence of mind : before he could have invented the 
happy answer that saved his life, he must have abstracted his 
mind from the passion of fear ; he must have rapidly turned 
his attention upon a variety of ideas unconnected by any for- 
mer associations with the exciting motive — falling from a 
height — fractured skulls — certain death — impossibility of rea- 
soning or wrestling with a madman. This was the train of 
thoughts which we might naturally expect to arise in such a 
situation, but from all these the man of presence of mind turn- 
ed away his attention ; he must have directed his thoughts in 
a contrary line : first, he must have thought of the means of 
saving himself, of some argument likely to persuade a mad- 
man, of some argument peculiarly suited to Lee's imagination, 
and applicable to his situation; he must at this moment have 
considered that alarming situation without thinking of his 
fears ; for the interval in which all these ideas passed in his 
mind, must have been so short that he could not have had 
leisure to combat fear ; if any of the ideas associated with 
that passion had interrupted his reasonings, he would not have 
invented his answer in time to have saved his life. 

We cannot foresee on what occasions presence of mind 
may be wanted, but we may, by education, give that generaL 
command of abstract attention, which is essential to its exer- 
cise in all circumstances. 

Transition of thought, the power of turning attention quick- 
ly to different subjects or employments, is another of those 
mental habits, which in some cases we call genius, and 
which in others we perceive depends entirely upon practice. 
A number of trials in one newspaper, upon a variety of un- 
connected subjects, once struck our eye, and we saw the name 
of a celebrated lawyer* as counsel in each cause. We could 
not help feeling involuntary admiration at that versatility of 
genius, which could pass from a fractional calculation about a 
London chaldron of coals, to the Jamaica laws of insurance ; 
from the bargains of a citizen, to the divorce of a fine lady ; 
from pathos to argument ; from arithmetic to wit ; from cross 
examination to eloquence. For, a moment w r e forgot our so- 
ber principles, and ascribed all this versatility of mind to 
natural genius ; but upon reflection we recurred to the belief, 
that this dexterity of intellect was not bestowed by nature., 
We observe in men who have no pretensions to genius, similar 
versatility of mind as to their usual employments. The daily 



* Mr. Erskixie— The Star. 



76 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

occupations of Mr. Elwes's huntsman were as various and in- 
congruous, and required as quick transitions of attention, as 
any that can well be imagined. 

" At* four o'clock he milked the cows ; then got breakfast 
for Mr. Elwes and friends ; then slipping on a green coat, he 
hurried into the stable, saddled the horses, got the hounds out 
of the kennel, and away they went into the field. After the 
fatigues of hunting, he refreshed himself, by rubbing down 
two or three horses as quickly as he could ; then running into 
the house to lay the cloth, and wait at dinner; then hurrying 
again into the stable to feed the horses, diversified with an in- 
terlude of the cows again to milk, the dogs to feed, and eight 
hunters to litter down for the night." Mr. Elwes used to call 
this huntsman an idle dog, who wanted to be paid for doing 
nothing! 

We do not mean to require any such rapid daily transitions 
in the exercise of attention from our pupils ; but we think 
that much may be done to improve versatility of mind, by a 
judicious arrangement of their occupations. When we are 
tired of smelling a rose, we can smell a carnation with pleas- 
ure ; and when the sense of smell is fatigued, yet w r e can look 
at the beautiful colours with delight. When we are tired of 
thinking upon one subject, we can attend to another ; when 
our memory is fatigued, the exercise of the imagination en- 
tertains us ; and when we are weary of reasoning, we can 
amuse ourselves with wit and humour. Men, who have at- 
tended much to the cultivation of their mind, seem to have 
felt all this, and they have kept some subordinate taste as a 
refreshment after their labours. Descartes went from the 
system of the world to his flower-garden ; Galileo used to 
read Ariosto ; and the metaphysical Dr. Clarke recovered 
himself from abstraction by jumping over chairs and tables. 
The learned and indefatigable chancellor d'Aguesseau declar- 
ed, that change of employment, was the only recreation he 
ever knew. Even Montaigne, who found his recreation in 
playing with his cat, educated himself better than those are 
educated who go from intense study to complete idleness. It 
has been very wisely recommended by Mr. Locke, that 
young people should early be taught some mechanical em- 
ployment, or some agreeable art, to which they may recur for 
relief when they are tired by mental application.! 

Doctor Darwin supposes that " animal motions, or configu- 
rations of the organs of sense, constitute our ideas.! The 
fatigue, he observes, that follows a continued attention of the 



* V. Life of John Elwes, Esq. by T. Topham 

t V. Chapter on Toys. 

% ZooDomia^ vol. i. p. 21, 24. 



ATTENTION. 77 

mind to one object, is relieved by changing the subject of our 
thoughts, as the continued movement of one limb is relieved 
by moving another in its stead." Dr. Darwin has further 
suggested a tempting subject of experiment in his theory of 
ocular spectra, to which we refer ingenious preceptors. 
Many useful experiments in education might be tried upon the 
principles which are there suggested. We dare not here 
trust ourselves to speculate upon this subject, because we are 
not at present provided with a sufficient number of facts to 
apply our theory to practice. If we could exactly discover 
how to arrange mental employments so as to induce actions 
in the antagonist faculties of the mind, we might relieve it 
from fatigue in the same manner as the eye is relieved by 
change of colour. By pursuing this idea, might we not hope 
to cultivate the general power of attention to a degree of per- 
fection hitherto unknown ? 

We have endeavoured to show how, by different arrange- 
ments and proper excitations, a preceptor may acquire that 
command over the attention of his pupils, which is absolutely 
essential to successful instruction ; but we must recollect, that 
when the years commonly devoted to education are over, 
when young people are no longer under the care of a precep- 
tor, they will continue to feel the advantages of a command 
of attention, whenever they mix in the active business of life, 
or whenever they apply to any profession, to literature, or 
science. Their attention must now be entirely voluntary £ 
they will have no tutor to excite them to exertion, no nice 
habitual arrangements to assist them in their daily occupa-? 
tions. It is of consequence, therefore, that we should substi- 
tute the power of voluntary, for the habit of associated, at- 
tention. With young children we depend upon particular as- 
sociations of place, time, and manner, upon different sorts of 
excitement, to produce habits of employment : but as our pu-. 
pils advance in their education, all these temporary excite- 
ments should be withdrawn. Some large, but distant object, 
some pursuit which is not to be rewarded with immediate 
praise, but rather with permanent advantage and esteem, 
should be held out to the ambition of youth. All the arrange-- 
ments should be left to the pupil himself, all the difficulties 
should be surmounted by his own industry, and the interest 
he takes in his own success and improvement, will now pro- 
bably be a sufficient stimulus ; his preceptor will now rather 
be his partner than his master, he should rather share the la- 
tour than attempt to direct it ; this species of sympathy in 
study, diminishes the pain of attention, and gives an agree- 
able interest even in the most tiresome researches. When a 
young man perceives that his preceptor becomes in this man- 
ner the companion of his exertions, he loses all suspicion that 



78 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

he is compelled to mental labour ; it is improper to say loses, 
for in a good education this suspicion need not ever be crea- 
ted : he discovers, we should rather say, that all the habits of 
attention whicji he has acquired, are those which are useful 
to men as well as to children, and he feels the advantage of 
his cultivated powers on every fresh occasion. He will per- 
ceive, that young men who have been ill educated, cannot, by 
any motive, command their vigorous attention, and he will 
feel the cause of his own superiority, when he comes to any 
trial of skill with inattentive men of genius. 

One of the arguments which Bayle uses, to prove that for- 
tune has a greater influence than prudence in the affairs of 
men, is founded upon the common observation, that men of 
the best abilities cannot frequently recollect, in urgent circum- 
stances, what they have said or done; the things occur to 
them perhaps a moment after they are past. The fact seems 
to be, that they could not, in the proper moment, command 
their attention ; but this we should attribute to the want of 
prudence in their early education. Thus, Bayle's argument 
does not, in this point of view, prove any thing in favour of for- 
tune. Those who can best command their attention, in the 
greatest variety of circumstances, have the most useful abili- 
ties; without this command of mind, men of genius, as they 
are called, are helpless beings ; with it, persons of inferior 
capacity become valuable. Addison trembled and doubted, 
and doubted and trembled, when he was to write a common 
official paper ; and it is said, that he was absolutely obliged to 
resign his place, because he could not decide in time whether 
he should write a that or a which. No business could have 
been transacted by such an imbecile minister. 

To substitute voluntary for associated attention, we may 
withdraw some of the usually associated circumstances, and in- 
crease the excitement ; and we may afterwards accustom the 
pupil to act from the hope of distant pleasures. Unless chil- 
dren can be actuated by the view of future distant advantage, 
they cannot be capable of long continued application. We 
shall endeavour to explain how the value of distant pleasures 
can be increased, and made to act with sufficient force upon 
the mind, when we hereafter speak of judgment and of imag- 
ination. 

It has been observed, that persons of wit and judgment 
have perhaps originally the same powers, and that the differ- 
ence in their characters arises from their habits of attention, 
and the different class of objects to which they have turned 
their thoughts. The manner in which we are first taught to 
observe, and to reason, must in the first years of life decide 
these habits. There are two methods of teaching ; one which 
ascends from particular facts to general principles ; the other 



ATTENTION. 79 

which descends from the general principles to particular facts ; 
one which builds up, another which takes to pieces ; the syn- 
thetic and the analytic method. The words analysis and 
synthesis are frequently misapplied, and it is difficult to write or 
to speak long about these methods without confounding them : 
in learning or in teaching we often use them alternately. We 
first observe particulars ; then form some general idea of 
classification ; then descend again to new particulars, to ob- 
serve whether they correspond with our principle. 

Children acquire knowledge, and their attention alternates 
from particular to general ideas, exactly in the same manner. 
It has been remarked, that men who have begun by forming 
suppositions, are inclined to adapt and to compress their con- 
sequent observations to the measure of their theories ; they 
have been negligent in collecting facts, and have not conde- 
scended to try experiments. This disposition of mind, during 
a long period of time, retarded improvement, and knowledge 
was confined to a few peremptory maxims and exclusive prin- 
ciples. The necessity of collecting facts, and of trying exper- 
iments, was at length perceived 5 and in all the sciences this 
mode has lately prevailed : consequently, we have now on 
many subjects a treasure of accumulated facts. We are, in 
educating children, to put them in possession of all this knowl- 
edge; and a judicious preceptor will wish to know, not only 
how these facts can be crammed speedily into his pupil's mem- 
ory, but what order of presenting them will be most advanta- 
geous to the understanding ; he will desire to cultivate his pu- 
pil's faculties, that he may acquire new facts, and make new 
observations after all the old facts have been arranged in his 
mind. 

By a judicious arrangement of past experiments, and by 
the rejection of what are useless, an able instructor can show, 
in a small compass, what it has cost the labour of ages to accu- 
mulate ; he may teach in a few hours what the most ingenious 
pupil, left to his own random efforts, could not have learned 
in many years. It would take up as much time to go over all 
the steps which have been made in any science, as it origi- 
inally cost the first discoverers. Simply to repeat all the 
fruitless experiments which have been made in chemistry, 
for instance, would probably employ the longest life that ever 
was devoted to science ; nor would the individual have got 
one step forwarder ; he would die, and with him his recapit- 
ulated knowledge; neither he nor the world would be the bet- 
ter for it. It is our business to save children all this useless 
labour, and all this waste of the power of attention. A pupil-, 
who is properly instructed, with the same quantity of atten- 
tion, learns, perhaps, a hundred times as much in the same 



30 PltACTICAL EDUCATION. 

time, as he could acquire under the tuition of a learned pre- 
ceptor ignorant in the art of teaching. 

The analytic and synthetic methods of instruction will both 
be found useful when judiciously employed. Where the enu- 
meration of particulars fatigues the attention, we should, in 
teaching any science, begin by stating the general principles, 
and afterwards produce only the facts essential to their illus- 
tration and proof. But wherever we have not accumulated 
a sufficient number of facts to be accurately certain of any gen- 
eral principle, we must, however tedious the task, enumerate 
all the facts that are known, and warn the pupil of the im- 
perfect state of the science. All the facts must, in this case, 
be stored up with scrupulous accuracy ; we cannot determine 
which are unimportant, and which may prove essentially use- 
ful ; this can be decided only by future experiments. By thus 
stating honestly to our pupils the extent of our ignorance, as 
well as the extent of our knowledge ; by thus directing atten- 
tion to the imperfections of science, rather than to the study 
of theories, we shall avoid the just reproaches which have 
been thrown upon the dogmatic vanity of learned preceptors. 

" For as knowledges are now," says Bacon, " there is a 
kind of contract of error between the deliverer and receiver : 
for he that delivereth knowledge, desireth to deliver it in such 
a form as may be best believed, and not as may be best ex- 
amined ; and he that receiveth knowledge, desireth rather 
present satisfaction than expectant inquiry; and so rather 
not to doubt than not to err ; glory making the author not to 
lay open his weakness, and sloth making the disciple not to 
know his strength."* 



CHAPTER IV. 



SERVANTS. 



" Now, master,"! said a fond nurse to her favourite boy, 
after having given him sugared bread and butter for supper, 
" now, master, kiss me ; wipe your mouth, dear, and go up to 
the drawing-room to mamma; and when mistress asks you 
what you have had for supper, you'll say, bread and butter, 
for you have had bread and butter, you know, master." " And 



* Bacon, vol. i. page 84. 

t Verbatim from what has been really said to a boy. 



SERVANTS* 81 

sugar," said the boy ; " I must say bread and butter, and 
sugar, you know." 

How few children would have had the courage to have 
added, " and sugar !" How dangerous it is to expose them 
to such temptations ! The boy must have immediately per- 
ceived the object of his nurse's casuistry. He must guess 
that she would be blamed for the addition of the sugar, else 
why should she wish to suppress the word ? His gratitude is 
engaged to his nurse for running this risk to indulge him ; his 
mother, by the force of contrast, appears a severe person, 
who, for no reason that he can comprehend, would deprive 
him of the innocent pleasure of eating sugar. As to its mak- 
ing him sick, he has eat it, and he is not sick ; as to its spoil- 
ing his teeth, he does not care about his teeth, and he sees no 
immediate change in them : therefore he concludes that his 
mother's orders are capricious, and that his nurse loves him 
better because she gives him the most pleasure. His honour 
and affection towards his nurse, are immediately set in oppo- 
sition to his duty to his mother. What a hopeful beginning 
in education ! What a number of dangerous ideas may be 
given by a single word ! 

The taste for sugared bread and butter is soon over ; but 
servants have it in their power to excite other tastes with pre- 
mature and factitious enthusiasm. The waiting-maid, a taste 
for dress ; the footman, a taste for gaming ; the coachman 
and groom, for horses and equipage ;. and the butler, . for 
wine. The simplicity of children is not a defence to them ; 
and though they are totally ignorant of vice, they are ex- 
posed to adopt the principles of those with whom they live, 
even before they can apply them to their own conduct. 

The young son of a lady of quality, a boy of six or seven 
years old, addressed with great simplicity, the following 
speech to a lady who visited his mother. 

Boy. Miss N , I wish you could find somebody, when 

you go to London, who would keep you. It's a very good 
thing to be kept. 

Lady. What do you mean, my dear ? 

Boy. Why it's when — you know, when a person's kept, 
they have every thing found for them ; their friend saves 
them all trouble, you know. They have a carriage and dia- 
monds, and every thing they want. I wish somebody would 
keep you. 

Lady, laughing. But I'm afraid nobody would. Do you 
think any body would ? 

Boy, after a pause. Why yes, I think Sir , naming a 

gentleman whose name had, at this time, been much talked of 
in a public trial, would be as likely as any body. 

n 



82 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

The same boy talked familiarly of phaetons and gigs, and 
wished that he was grown up, that he might drive four horses 
in hand. It is obvious that these ideas were put into the boy's 
head by the servants with whom he associated. 

Without supposing them to be profligate, servants, from 
their situation, from all that they see of the society of their 
superiors, and from the early prejudices of their own educa- 
tion, learn to admire that wealth and rank to which they are 
bound to pay homage. The luxuries and follies of fashiona- 
ble life they mistake for happiness ; they measure the respect 
they pay to strangers by their external appearance ; they 
value their own masters and mistresses by the same standard ; 
and in their attachment there is a necessary mixture of that 
sympathy which is sacred to prosperity. Setting aside all in- 
terested motives, servants love show and prodigality in their 
masters ; they feel that they partake the triumph, and they 
wish it to be as magnificent as possible. These dispositions 
break out naturally in the conversation of servants with one 
another ; if children are suffered to hear them, they will 
quickly catch the same tastes. But if these ideas break out 
in their unpremeditated gossiping with one another, how much 
more strongly will they be expressed when servants wish to 
ingratiate themselves into a child's affections by flattery ! 
Their method of showing their attachment to a family, is 
usually to exaggerate in their expressions of admiration of 
its consequence and grandeur ; they depreciate all whom 
they imagine to be competitors in any respect with their mas- 
ters, and feed and foster the little jealousies which exist be- 
tween neighbouring families. The children of these families 
are thus early set at variance ; the children in the same fami- 
ly are often taught, by the imprudence or malice of servants, 
to dislike and envy each other. In houses where each child 
has an attendant, the attendants regularly quarrel, and, out of 
a show of zeal, make their young masters and mistresses par- 
ties in their animosity. Three or four maids sometimes pro- 
duce their little dressed pupils for a few minutes to the compa- 
ny in the drawing-room, for the express purpose of seeing 
which shall obtain the greatest share of admiration. This 
competition, which begins in their nurses' arms, is continued 
by daily artifices through the whole course of their nursery 
education. Thus the emulation of children is rendered a tor- 
ment to them, their ambition is directed to absurd and vile 
purposes, the understanding is perverted, their temper is 
spoiled, their simplicity of mind, and their capability of en- 
joying happiness, materially injured. 

The language and manners, the awkward and vulgar tricks 
which children learn in the society of servants, are imme- 
diately perceived, and disgust and shock well-bred parents. 



SERVANTS. 83 

This is an evil which is striking and digracefui ; it is more 
likely to be remedied than those which are more secret and 
slow in their operation : the habits of cunning, falsehood, en- 
vy, which lurk in the temper, are not instantly visible to 
strangers ; they do not appear the moment children are re- 
viewed by parents ; they may remain for years without no- 
tice or without cure. 

All these things have been said a hundred times ;. and, what 
is more, they are universally acknowledged to be true. It 
has passed into a common maxim with all who reflect, and 
even with all who speak upon the subject of education, that 
K it is the worst thing in the world to leave children with ser- 
vants." But, notwithstanding this, each person imagines that 
he has found some lucky exception to the general rule. 
There is some favourite maid or phoenix of a footman in each 
family, who is supposed to be unlike all other servants, and, 
therefore, qualified for the education of children. But, if 
their qualifications were scrupulously examined, it is to be 
feared they would not be found competent to the trust that is 
reposed in them. They may, nevertheless, be excellent ser- 
vants, much attached to their masters and mistresses, and 
sincerely desirous to obey their orders in the management of 
their pupils ; but this is not sufficient. In education it is not 
enough to obey the laws ; it is necessary to understand them, 
to understand the spirit, as well as the letter of the law. The 
blind application of general maxims will never succeed ; and 
can that nice discrimination which is necessary to the just use 
of good principles, be expected from those who have never 
studied the human mind, who have little motive for the study, 
whose knowledge is technical, and who have never had any 
liberal education ? Give, or attempt to give, the best waiting- 
maid in London the general maxim, " That pain should be 
associated with whatever we wish to make children avoid do- 
ing ; and pleasure should be associated with whatever we 
wish that children should love to do •;" will the waiting-maid 
understand this, even if you exchange the word associated for 
joined? How will she apply her new principle in practice? 
She will probably translate it into, " Whip the child when it 
is troublesome, and give it sweetmeats when it does as it is 
bid." With this compendious system of tuition she is well 
satisfied, especially as it contains nothing which is new to 
her understanding, or foreign to her habits. But if we should 
expect her to enter into the views of a Locke or a Barbauld, 
would it not be at once unreasonable and ridiculous ? 

What has been said of the understanding and dispositions 
of servants, relates only to servants as they are now edu- 
cated. Their vices and their ignorance arise from the same 
causes, the want of education. They are not a separate cast 



o4 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

in society, doomed to ignorance, or degraded by inherent; 
vice ; they are capable, they are desirous of instruction. Let 
them be well educated,* and the difference in their conduct 
and understanding will repay society for the trouble of the 
undertaking. This education must begin as early as possi- 
ble ; let us not imagine that it is practicable to change the 
habits of servants who are already educated, and to make 
them suddenly fit companions in a family. They should not, 
in any degree, be permitted to interfere with the management 
of children, until their own education has been radically re- 
formed. Let servants be treated with the utmost kindness ; 
let their situations be made as happy as possible ; let the re- 
ward of their services and attachment be as liberal as possi- 
ble ; but reward with justice, do not sacrifice your children 
to pay your own debts. Familiarity between servants and 
children, cannot permanently increase the happiness of either 
party. Children, who have early lived with servants, as 
they grow up are notoriously apt to become capricious and 
tyrannical masters. A boy who has been used to treat a 
footman as his play-fellow, cannot suddenly command from 
him that species of deference, which is compounded of ha- 
bitual respect for the person, and conventional submission to 
his station ; the young master must, therefore, effect a change 
in his footman's manner of thinking and speaking by violent 
means ; he must extort that tribute of respect which he has 
neglected so long, and to which, consequently, his right is 
disputed.! He is sensible, that his superiority is merely that 
of situation, and he, therefore, exerts his dormant preroga- 
tives with jealous insolence. No master is so likely to be- 
come the tyrant of his valet-de-chambre, as he who is con- 
scious that he never can appear to him a hero. No servant 
feels the yoke of servitude more galling, than he who has been 
partially emancipated, who has lost his habits of " proud 
subordination, and his taste for dignified submission."! 

No mistaken motive of tenderness to domestics should op- 
erate upon the minds of parents ; nor should they hesitate, 
for the general happiness of their families, to insist upon a to- 
tal separation between those parts of it which Avill injure each 
other essentially by their union. 

Every body readily disclaims the idea of letting children 
live with servants \ but, besides the exceptions in favour of 



* Perhaps an institution for the education of attendants upon children; 
would be of the highest utility. 

Mr. had once an intention of educating forty children for this purpose ; 

from amongst whom he proposed to select eight or ten as masters for future 
schools upon the same plan. 

t V. The comedy of Wild Oats. % Burke. 



SERVANTS. 85 

particular individuals, there is yet another cause of the differ- 
ence between theory and practice upon this subject. Time 
is left out of the consideration ; people forget that life is made 
up of days and hours ; and they by no means think, that let- 
ting children pass several hours every day with servants, has 
any thing to do with the idea of living with them. We must 
contract this latitude of expression. If children pass one 
hour in a day with servants, it will be in vain to attempt their 
education. 

Madame Roland, in one of her letters to De Bosc, says, 
that her little daughter Eudora had learned to swear ; " and 
yet," continues she, " I leave, her but one half hour a day 
with servants. Admirez la disposition !" Madame Roland 
could not have been much accustomed to attend to education. 

Whilst children are very young, there appears a necessity 
for their spending at least half an hour a day with servants ; 
until they are four or five years old, they cannot dress or un- 
dress themselves, or, if they attempt it, they may learn care- 
less habits, which in girls are particularly to be avoided. If a 
mother, or a governess, would make it a rule to be present 
ivhen they are dressing, a maid-servant would not talk to 
them, and could do them but little injury. It is of conse- 
quence, that the maid-servant should herself be perfectly neat 
both from habit and taste. Children observe exactly the 
manner in which every thing is done for them, and have the 
wish, even before they have the power, to imitate what they 
see ; they love order, if they are accustomed to it, and if their 
first attempts at arrangement are not made irksome by inju- 
dicious management. What they see done every day in a par- 
ticular manner, they learn to think part of the business of the 
day, and they are uneasy if any of the rites of cleanliness 
are forgotten ; the transition from this uneasiness, to the de- 
sire of exerting themselves, is soon made, particularly if they 
are sometimes left to feel the incoveniences of being helpless. 
This should, and can, be done, without affectation. A maid 
cannot be always ready, the instant she is wanted, to attend 
upon them ; they should not be waited upon as being masters 
and misses, they should be assisted as being helpless.* They 
w 7 ill not feel their vanity flattered by this attendance ; the 
maid will not be suffered to amuse them, they will be ambi- 
tious of independence, and they will soon be proud of doing 
every thing for themselves. 

Another circumstance which keeps children long in subjec- 
tion to servants, is their not being able to wield a knife, fork, 
or spoon, with decent dexterity. Such habits are taught to 

* Rousseau. 



86 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

them by the careless maids who feed them, that they cannot 
for many years be produced even at the side-table -without 
much inconvenience and constant anxiety. If this anxiety in 
a mother were to begin a little sooner, it need never be in- 
tense 5 patient care in feeding children neatly at first, will 
save many a bitter reprimand afterwards; their little mouths 
and hands need not be disgusting at their meals, and their 
nurses had better take care not to let them touch what is dis- 
agreeable, instead of rubbing their lips rudely with a rough 
napkin, by way of making them love to have their mouths 
clean. These minutiae must, in spite of didactic dignity, be 
noticed, because they lead to things of greater consequence ; 
they are well worth the attention of a prudent mother or gov- 
erness. If children are early taught to eat with care, they 
will not, from false shame, desire to dine* with the vulgar in- 
dulgent nursery-maid, rather than with the fastidious compa- 
ny at their mother's table. Children should first be taught to 
eat with a spoon what has been neatly cut for them ; after- 
wards they should cut a little meat for themselves towards 
the end of dinner, when the rage of hunger is appeased ; they 
will then have " leisure to be good." The several operations 
of learning to eat with a spoon, to cut and to eat with a knife 
and fork, will become easy and habitual, if sufficient time be- 
allowed. 

Several children in a family, who were early attended to in 
all these little particulars, were produced at table when they 
were four or five years old ; they suffered no constraint, nor 
were they ever banished to the nursery lest company should 
detect their evil habits. Their eyes and ears were at liberty 
during the time of dinner ; and instead of being absorbed in 
the contemplation of their plates, and at war with themselves 
and their neighbours, they could listen to conversation, and 
were amused even whilst they w 7 ere eating. Without mean- 
ing to assert, with Rousseau, that all children are naturally 
gluttons or epicures, we must observe, that eating is their first 
great and natural pleasure ; this pleasure should, therefore, 
he. entirely at the disposal of those who have the care of their 
education ; it should be associated with the idea of their tu- 
tors or governesses. A governess may, perhaps, disdain to 
use the same means to make herself beloved by a child, as 
those w T hich are employed by a nursery-maid ; nor is it meant 
that children should be governed by their love of eating. 
Eating need not be made a reward, nor should we restrain 
their appetite as a punishment ; praise and blame, and a va- 
riety of other excitements, must be preferred when we want 



* V. Sancho Panza. 



SERVANTS. 87 

to act upon their understanding. Upon this subject we shall 
speak more fully hereafter. All that is here meant to be 
pointed out, is, that the mere physical pleasure of eating 
should not be associated in the minds of children with ser- 
vants ; it should not be at the disposal of servants ; because 
they may, in some degree, balance by this pleasure the other 
motives which a tutor may wish to put in action. " Solid 
pudding," as well as " empty praise," should be in the gift of 
the preceptor. 

Besides the pleasures of the table, there are many others 
which usually are associated early with servants. After 
children have been pent in a close formal drawing-room, mo- 
tionless and mute, they are frequently dismissed to an apart- 
ment where there is no furniture too fine to be touched with 
impunity, where there is ample space, where they may jump 
and sing, and make as much noise as can be borne by the 
much-enduring ear-drum of the nur?ery-maid. Children 
think this insensibility of ear a most valuable qualification in 
any person ; they have no sympathy with more refined audi- 
tory nerves, and they prefer the company of those who are 
to them the best hearers. A medium between their taste and 
that of their parents should, in this instance, be struck; par- 
ents should not insist upon eternal silence, and children should 
not be suffered to make mere noise essential to their enter- 
tainment. Children should be encouraged to talk at proper 
times, and should have occupations provided for them when 
they are required to be still ; by these means it will not be a 
restraint to them to stay in the same room with the rest of 
the family for some hours in the day. At other times they 
should have free leave to run about either in rooms where 
they cannot disturb others, or out of doors ; in neither case 
should they be with servants. Children should never be sent 
out to walk with servants. 

After they have been poring over their lessons, or stiffening 
under the eye of their preceptors, they are frequently consign- 
ed immediately to the ready footman ; they cluster around 
him for their hats, their gloves, their little boots and whips, 
and all the well known signals of pleasure. The hall door 
bursts open, and they sally forth under the interregnum of 
this beloved protector, to enjoy life and liberty ; all the nat- 
ural, and all the factitious ideas of the love of liberty, are 
connected with this distinct part of the day ; the fresh air — 
the green fields — the busy streets — the gay shops — the vari- 
ety of objects which the children see and hear — the freedom 
of their tongues — the joys of bodily exercise, and of mental 
relaxation, all conspire to make them prefer this period of the 
day, which they spend with the footman, to any other in the 
four-and-twenty hours. The footman sees, and is flattered 



88 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

by this ; he is therefore assiduous to please, and piques tiini- 
self upon being more indulgent than the hated preceptor. 
Servants usually wish to make themselves beloved by chil- 
dren : can it be wondered at if they succeed, when we con- 
sider the power that is thrown into their hands ? 

In towns, children have no gardens, no place where they 
can take that degree of exercise which is necessary for their 
health; this tempts their parents to trust them to servants, 
when they cannot walk with them themselves : but is there 
no individual in the family, neither tutor, nor governess, nor 
friend, nor brother, nor sister, who can undertake this daily 
charge ? Cannot parents sacrifice some of their amusements in 
town, or cannot they live in the country ? If none of these 
things can be done, without hesitation they should prefer a 
public to a private education. In these circumstances, they 
cannot educate their children at home ; they had much better 
not attempt it, but send them at once to school. 

In the country, arrangements may easily be made, which 
will preclude all those little dangers which fill a prudent par- 
ent's mind with anxiety. Here children want the care of no 
servant to walk out with them ; they can have gardens, and 
safe places for exercise allotted to them. In rainy weather 
they can have rooms apart from the rest of the family ; they 
need not be cooped up in an ill-contrived house, where ser- 
vants are perpetually in their way. 

Attention to the arrangement of a house, is of material 
consequence. Children's rooms should not be passage rooms 
for servants ; they should, on the contrary, be so situated, 
that servants cannot easily have access to them, and cannot, 
on any pretence of business, get the habit of frequenting them. 
Some fixed employment should be provided for children, 
which will keep them in a different part of the house at those 
hours when servants must necessarily be in their bed-cham- 
bers. There will be a great advantage in teaching children 
to arrange their own rooms, because this will prevent the ne- 
cessity of servants being for any length of time in their 
apartments; their things will not be mislaid ; their playthings 
will not be swept away or broken ; no little temptations will 
arise to ask questions from servants ; all necessity, and all op- 
portunity of intercourse, will thus be cutoff. Children should 
never be sent with messages to servants, either on their own 
business, or on other people's ; if they are permitted at any 
times to speak to them, they will not distinguish what times 
are proper, and what are improper. 

Servants have so much the habit of talking to children, and 
think it such a proof of good nature to be interested about 
them, that it will be difficult to make them submit to this total 
silence and separation. The certainty that they shall lose 



SERVANTS. 89 

their places, if they break through the regulations of the fam- 
ily, will, however, be a strong motive, provided that their 
places are agreeable and advantageous ; and parents should 
be absolutely strict in this particular. What is the loss of 
the service of a good groom, or a good butler, compared with 
the danger of spoiling a child ? It may be feared that some 
secret intercourse should be carried on between children and 
servants; but this will be lessened by the arrangements in the 
house, which we have mentioned ; by care in a mother or 
governess, to know exactly where children are, and what 
they are doing every hour of the day ; this need not be a 
daily anxiety, for when certain hours have once been fixed for 
certain occupations, habit is our friend, and we cannot have a 
safer. There is this great advantage in measures of precau- 
tion and prevention, that they diminish all temptation, at the 
same time that they strengthen the habits of obedience. 

Other circumstances will deter servants from running any 
hazard themselves ; they will r-.h be so fond of children who 
do not live with them; they will consider them as beings mov- 
ing in a different sphere. Children who are at ease with 
their parents, and happy in their company, will not seek infe- 
rior society ; this will be attributed to pride by servants, who 
will not like them for this reserve. So much the better. 
Children who are encouraged to converse about every thing 
that interests them, will naturally tell their mothers if any 
one talks to them ; a servant's speaking to them would be an 
extraordinary event to be recorded in the history of the day. 
The idea that it is dishonourable to tell tales, should never be 
put into their minds; they will never be the spies of servants, 
nor should they keep their secrets. Thus, as there is no 
faith expected from the children, the servants will not trust 
them; they will be certain of detection, and will not transgress 
the laws. 

It may not be impertinent to conclude these minute precepts 
with assuring parents, that in a numerous family, where they 
have for above twenty years been steadily observed, success 
has been the uniform result. 
12 



90 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



CHAPTER V. 



ACQUAINTANCE. 



" The charming little dears !" exclaims a civil acquaint- 
ance, the moment the children are introduced. " Won't you 
come to me, love ?" At this question, perhaps, the bashful 
child backs towards its nurse, or its mother ; but in Vain. 
Rejected at this trying crisis by its natural protectors, it is 
pushed forward into the middle of the circle, and all prospect 
of retreat being cut off, the victorious stranger seizes upon her 
little victim, whom she seats, without a struggle, upon her lap. 
To win the affections of her ; *iaptive, the lady begins by a di- 
rect appeal to personal vanity: " Who curls this pretty hair 
of yours, my dear ? Won't you let me look at your nice 
new red shoes ? What shall I give you for that fine colour in 
your cheeks ? Let us see what we can find in my pocket !" 

Amongst the pocket bribes, the lady never fails to select 
the most useless trinkets ; the child would make a better 
choice ; for, if there should appear a pocket-book, which may 
be drawn up by a ribbon from its slip case, a screen that 
would unfold gradually into a green star, a pocket-fan, or a 
tooth-pick case with a spring lock, the child would seize upon 
these with delight ; but the moment its attention is fixed, it is 
interrupted by the officious exclamation of, " Oh, let me do that 
for you, love ! Let me open that for you, you'll break your 
sweet little nails. Ha ! there is a looking-glass ; whose pret- 
ty face is that ? but we don't love people for being pretty, 
you know ; (mamma says I must not tell you you are pretty) 
but we love little girls for being good, and I am sure you look 
as if you were never naughty. I am sure you don't know 
what it is to be naughty; will you give me one kiss ? and will 
you hold out your pretty little hand for some sugar-plumbs ? 
Mamma shakes her head, but mamma will not be angry, 
though mamma can refuse you nothing, I'll answer for it. 
Who spoils you ? Whose favourite are you ? Who do you 
love best in the world ? And will you love me? And will you 
come and live with me ? Shall 1 carry you away with me in 
the coach to-night? Oh? but I'm afraid I should eat you up, 
and then what would mamma say to us both?" 

To stop this torrent of nonsense, the child's mother, per- 
haps, ventures to interfere with, "My dear, I'm afraid you'll 
be troublesome." But this produces only vehement asser- 



ACQUAINTANCE. 91 

tions the contrary. " The dear little creature can never 
be troublesome to any body." Woe be to the child who im- 
plicitly believes this assertion ! frequent rebuffs from his 
friends must be endured before this error will be thoroughly 
rectified : this will not tend to make those friends more agree- 
able, or more beloved. That childish love, which varies from 
hour to hour, is scarcely worth consideration ; it cannot be 
an object of competition to any reasonable person ; but in 
early education nothing must be thought beneath our attention. 
A child does not retain much affection, it is true, for every casu- 
al visiter by whom he is flattered and caressed. The individu- 
als are here to-day and gone to-morrow ; variety prevents the 
impression from sinking into the mind, it may be said ; but 
the general impression remains, though each particular stroke 
is not seen. Young children, who are much caressed in com- 
pany, are less intent than others upon pleasing those they 
live with, and they are also less independent in their occupa-' 
tions and pleasures. Those who govern such pupils have 
not sufficient power over them, because they have not the 
means of giving pleasure ; because their praise or blame is 
frequently counteracted by applause of visiters. That un- 
broken course of experience, which is necessary for the suc- 
cess of a regular plan of education, cannot be preserved. 
Every body may have observed the effect, which the extra- 
ordinary notice of strangers produces upon children. After 
the day is over, and the company has left the house, there is 
a cold blank ; a melancholy silence. The children then sink 
into themselves, and feel the mortifying change in their situa- 
tion. They look with dislike upon every thing around them ; 
yawn with ennui, or fidget with fretfulness, till on the first 
check which they meet with, their secret discontent bursts 
forth into a storm. Resistance, caprice, and peevishness, are 
not borne with patience by a governess, though they are sub- 
mitted to with smiles by the complaisant visiter. In the same 
day, the same conduct produces totally different consequen- 
ces. Experience, it is said, makes fools wise ; but such ex- 
perience as this, makes wise children fools. 

Why is this farce of civility, which disgusts all parties, 
continually repeated between visiters and children ? Visiters 
would willingly be excused from the trouble of flattering and 
spoiling them ; but such is the spell of custom, that no one 
dares to break it, even when every one feels that it is absurd. 

Children, who are thought to be clever, are often produced 
to entertain company ; they fill up the time, and relieve the 
circle from that embarrassing silence, which proceeds from 
the having nothing to say. Boys, who are thus brought for- 
ward at six or seven years old, and encouraged to say what 
are called smart things, seldom, as they grow up, have really 



92 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

good understandings. Children, who, like the fools in former 
times, are permitted to say every thing, now and then blurt 
out those simple truths which politeness conceals: this enter- 
tains people, but, in fact, it is a sort of naivete, which may ex- 
ist without any great talent for observation, and without any 
powers of reasoning. Every thing in our manners, in the 
customs of the world, is new to children, and the relations of 
apparently dissimilar things, strike them immediately from 
their novelty. Children are often witty, without knowing it, 
or rather without intending it ; but as they grow older, the 
same kind of wit does not please ; the same objects do not 
appear in the same point of view ; and boys, who have been 
the delight of a whole house at seven or eight years old, for 
the smart things they could say, sink into stupidity and des- 
pondency at thirteen or fourteen. " Un nom trop fameaux, 
est. un fardeau tres pesant," said a celebrated wit. 

Plain, sober sense, does not entertain common visiters, and 
children whose minds are occupied, and who are not ambi- 
tious of exhibiting themselves for the entertainment of the 
company, will not in general please. So much the better ; 
they will escape many dangers ; not only the dangers of flat- 
tery, but also the dangers of nonsense. Few people know how 
to converse with children ; they talk to them of things that 
are above, or below their understandings ; if they argue with 
them, they do not reason fairly ; they silence them with sen- 
timent, or with authority ; or else they baffle them by wit, or by 
unintelligible terms. They often attempt to try their capaci- 
ties with quibbles and silly puzzles. Children, who are expert 
at answering these, have rarely been well educated : the ex- 
treme simplicity of sensible children, will surprise those who 
have not been accustomed to it, and many will be provoked 
by their inaptitude to understand the common-place wit of 
conversation. 

" How many sticks go to a rook's nest ?" said a gentleman 
to a boy of seven years old ; he looked very grave, and hav- 
ing pondered upon the question for some minutes, answered 
" I do not know what you mean by the word go." Fortunate- 
ly, for the boy, the gentleman who asked the question, was 
not a captious querist ; he perceived the good sense of this 
answer ; he perceived that the boy had exactly hit upon the 
ambiguous word which was puzzling to the understanding, 
and he saw that this showed more capacity than could have 
been shown by the parrying of a thousand witticisms. We 

have seen S , a remarkably intelligent boy of nine years 

old, stand with the most puzzled face imaginable, considering 
for a long half hour the common quibble of " There was a 
carpenter who made a door ; he made it too large ; he cut it and 
cut it, and he cut it too little ; he cut it again r andit fitted." S- 



ACQUAINTANCE. 93 

showed very little satisfaction, when he at length discovered 
the double meaning of the words " too little ;" but simply said, 
" I did not know that you meant that the carpenter cut too lit- 
tle off the door." 

" Which has most legs, a horse or no horse ?" " A horse 
has more legs than no horse," replies the unwary child. 
" But," continues the witty sophist, " a horse, surely, has but 
four legs ; did you ever see a horse with five legs ?" " Nev- 
er," says the child ; " no horse has five legs." " Oh, ho !" 
exclaims the entrapper, " I have you now ! No horse has five 
legs, you say ; then you must acknowledge that no horse has 
more legs than a horse. Therefore, when I asked you which 
has most legs, a horse or no horse, your answer, you see, 
should have been, no horse" 

The famous dilemma of " you have what you have not lost ; 
you have not lost horns ; then you have horns ;" is much in 
the same style of reasoning. Children may readily be taught 
to chop logic, and to parry their adversaries technically in 
this contest of false wit ; but this will not improve their under- 
standings, though it may to superficial judges, give them the 
appearance of great quickness of intellect. We should not, 
even in jest, talk of nonsense to children, or suffer them even 
to hear inaccurate language. If confused answers be given to 
their questions, they will soon be content with a confused no- 
tion of things ; they will be satisfied with bad reason ing, if 
they are not taught to distinguish it scrupulously from what 
is good, and to reject it steadily. Half the expressions cur- 
rent in conversation, have merely a nominal value ; they 
represent no ideas, and they pass merely by common courte- 
sy : but the language of every person of sense has sterling 
value; it cheats and puzzles nobody; and even when it is 
addressed to children, it is made intelligible. No common 
acquaintance, who talks to a child merely for its own amuse- 
ment, selects his expressions with any care ; what becomes 
of the child afterwards, is no part of his concern ; he does 
not consider the advantage of clear explanations to the un- 
derstanding, nor would he be at the pains of explaining any 
thing thoroughly, even if he were able to do so. And how few 
people are able to explain distinctly, even when they most 
wish to make themselves understood ! 

The following conversation passed between a learned doc- 
tor (formerly) of the Sorbonne, and a boy of seven years old. 

Doctor. So, Sir, I see you are very advanced already in 
your studies. You are quite expert at Latin. Pray, Sir, al- 
low me to ask you ; I suppose you have heard of Tully's Of- 
fices ? 

Boy. Tully's Offices ! No, Sir. 



94 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Doctor. No maUei*. You can, I will venture to say, solve 
me the following question. It is not very difficult, but it has 
puzzled some abler casuists, I can tell you, though, than yon 
or I ; but if you will lend me your attention for a few 
moments, I flatter myself I shall make myself intelligible to 
you. 

The boy began to stiffen at this exordium, but he fixed 
himself in an attitude of anxious attention, and the doctor, af- 
ter having taken two pinches of snuff, proceeded : 

" In the Island of Rhodes, there was once, formerly, a great 
scarcity of provisions, a famine quite ■ and some merchants 
fitted out ten ships to relieve the Rhodians ; and one of the 
merchants got into port sooner than the others ; and he took 
advantage of this circumstance to sell his goods at an exorbit- 
ant rate, finding himself in possession of the market. The 
Rhodians did not know that the other ships laden with pro- 
visions were to be in the next day ; and they, of course, paid 
this merchant whatsoever price he thought proper to demand. 
Now the question is, in morality, whether did he act the part 
of an honest man in this business by the Rhodians? Or should 
he not rather have informed them of the nine ships which 
were expected to come with provisions to the market the en- 
suing day?" 

The boy was silent, and did not appear to comprehend the 
story or the question in the least. In telling his story, the 
doctor of the Sorbonne unluckily pronounced the word ship 
and ships in such a manner, that the child all along mistook 
them for sheep and sheeps ; and this mistake threw every thing 
into confusion. Besides this, a number of terras were made 
use of which were quite new to the boy. Getting into port — 
being in possession of the market — selling goods at an exorbit- 
ant rate ; together with the whole mystery of buying and 
selling, were as new to him, and appeared to him as difficult to 
be understood, as the most abstract metaphysics. He did not 
even know what was meant by the ships being expected in 
the next day ; and " acting the part of an honest man," was to 
him an unusual mode of expression. The young casuist made 
no hand of this case of conscience ; when at last he attempt- 
ed an answer, he only exposed himself to the contempt of the 
learned doctor. When he was desired to repeat the story, he 
made a strange jumble about some people who wanted to get 
some sheep, and about one man who got in his sheep before the 
other nine sheep ; but he did not know how or why it was 
wrong in him not to tell of the other sheep. Nor could he 
imagine why the Rhodians could not get sheep without this 
man. He had never had any idea of a famine. This boy's fa- 
ther, unwilling that he should retire to rest with his intellects 
in this state of confusion, as soon as the doctor had taken leave, 



ACQUAINTANCE. 95 

told the story to the child in different words, to try whether 
it was the words or the ideas that puzzled him. 

" In the iEgean sea, which you saw the other day in the 
jnap, there is an Island, which is called the Island of Rhodes. 
In telling my story, I take the opportunity to fix a point in ge- 
ography in your memory. In the JEgean sea there is an Isl- 
and which is called the Island of Rhodes. There was once a 
famine in this Island, that is to say, the people had not food 
enough to live upon, and they were afraid that they should be 
starved to death. Now, some merchants, who lived on the 
continent of Greece, filled ten ships with provisions, and they 
sailed in these vessels for the Island of Rhodes. It happened 
that one of these ships got to the Island sooner than any of the 
others. It was evening, and the captain of this ship knew 
that the others could not arrive until the morning. Now the 
people of Rhodes, being extremely hungry, were very eager to 
buy the provisions which this merchant had brought to sell; 
and they were ready to give a great deal more money for 
provisions than they would have done if they had not been 
almost starved. There was not half a sufficient quantity of 
food in this one ship, to supply all the people who wanted 
food ; and therefore those who had money, and who knew 
that the merchant wanted as much money as he could get in 
exchange for his provisions, offered to give him a large price, 
the price which he asked for them. Had these people known 
that nine other ships full of provisions would arrive in the 
morning, they would not have been ready to give so much 
money for food, because they would not have been so much 
afraid of being starved ; and they would have known, that, in 
exchange for their money, they could have a greater quantity 
of food the next day. The merchant, however, did not tell 
them that any ships were expected to arrive, and he conse- 
quently got a great deal more of their money, for his provis- 
ions, than he would have done, if he had told them the fact 
which he knew, and which they did not know. Do you think 
that he did right or wrong ?" 

The child, who now had rather more the expression of in- 
telligence in his countenance, than he had when the same 
question had been put to him after the former statement of the 
case, immediately answered, that he " thought the merchant 
had done wrong, that he should have told the people that 
more ships were to come in the morning." Several different 
opinions were given afterwards by other children, and grown 
people who were asked the same question ; and what had 
been an unintelligible story, was rendered, by a little more 
skill and patience in the art of explanation, an excellent lesson, 
or rather exercise in reasoning. 



96 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

It is scarcely possible that a stranger, who sees a child only 
for a few hours, can guess what he knows, and what he does 
not know ; or that he can perceive the course of his thoughts, 
which depends upon associations over which he has no com- 
mand ; therefore, when a stranger, let his learning and abili- 
ties be what they will, attempts to teach children, he usually 
puzzles them, and the consequences of the confusion of mind 
he creates, last sometimes for years : sometimes it influences 
their moral, sometimes their scientific reasoning. " Every 
body but my friends," said a little girl of six years old, " tells 
me I am very pretty." From this contradictory evidence, 
what must the child have inferred? The perplexity which 
some young people, almost arrived at the years of discretion, 
have shown in their first notions of mathematics, has been a 
matter of astonishment to those who have attempted to teach 
them : this perplexity has been at length discovered to arise 
from their having early confounded in their minds the ideas of 
a triangle, and an angle. In the most common modes of ex- 
pression there are often strange inaccuracies, which do not 
strike us, because they are familiar to us ; but children, who 
hear them for the first time, detect their absurdity, and are 
frequently anxious to have such phrases explained. If they 
converse much with idle visiters, they will seldom be proper- 
ly applauded for their precision, and their philosophic curios- 
ity will often be repressed by unmeaning replies. Children, 
who have the habit of applying to their parents, or to sensible 
preceptors, in similar difficulties, will be somewhat better re- 
ceived, and will gain rather more accurate information. S- 

(nine years old) was in a house where a chimney was on fire ; 
he saw a great bustle, and he heard the servants and people, 
as they ran backwards and forwards, all exclaim, that " the 
chimney was on fire." After the fire was put out, and when 
the bustle was over, S said to his father, " What do peo- 
ple mean when they say the chimney is on fire ? What is it 
that burns ?" At this question a silly acquaintance would 
probably have laughed in the boy's face ; would have ex- 
pressed astonishment as soon as his visit was over, at such an 
instance of strange ignorance in a boy of nine years old ; or, 
if civility had prompted any answer, it would perhaps have 
been, " The chimney's being on fire, my love, means that the 
chimney's on fire ! Every body knows what's meant by ' the 
chimney's on fire !' There's a great deal of smoke, and sparks, 
and flame, coming out at the top, you know, when the chim- 
ney's on fire. And it's extremely dangerous, and would set a 
house on fire, or perhaps the whole neighbourhood, if it was 
not put out immediately. Many dreadful fires, you know, 
happen in towns, as we hear forever in the newspaper, by the 
chimney's taking fire. Did you never hear of a chimney's 



ACQUAINTANCE. 97 

being on fire before? You are a very happy young gentle- 
man to have lived to your time of life, and to be still at a loss 
about such a thing. What burns? Why, my dear Sir, the 
chimney burns ; fire burns in the ehimney. To be sure fires 
are sad accidents ; many lives are lost by them every day. I 
had a chimney on fire in my drawing room last year." 

Thus would the child's curiosity have been baffled by a 
number of words without meaning or connexion ; on the con- 
trary, when he applied to a father, who was interested in his 
improvement, his sensible question was listened to with ap- 
probation. He was told, that the chimney's being on fire, 
was an inaccurate common expression ; that it was the soot 
in the chimney, not the chimney, that burned; that the soot 
was sometimes set on fire by sparks of fire, sometimes by 
flame, which might have been accidentally drazon up the 
chimney. Some of the soot which had been set on fire, was 
shown to him ; the nature of burning in general, the manner 
in which the chimney draws, the meaning of that expression, 
and many other things connected with the subject, were ex- 
plained upon this occasion to the inquisitive boy, who was 
thus encouraged to think and speak accurately, and to apply, 
in similar difficulties, to the friend who had thus taken the 
trouble to understand his simple question. A random answer 
to a child's question, does him a real injury ; but can we ex- 
pect, that those who have no interest in education, should 
have the patience to correct their whole conversation, and to 
adapt it precisely to the capacity of children ? This would in- 
deed be unreasonable ; all we can do, is to keep our pupils 
out of the way of those who can do them no good, and who 
may do them a great deal of harm. We must prefer the per- 
manent advantage of our pupils, to the transient vanity of ex- 
hibiting for the amusement of company, their early wit, or 
" lively nonsense." Children should never be introduced for 
the amusement of the circle ; nor yet should they be con- 
demned to sit stock still, holding up their heads and letting 
their feet dangle from chairs that are too high for them, 
merely that they may appear what is called well before visits 
ers. Whenever any conversation is going forward which 
they can understand, they should be kindly summoned to 
partake of the pleasures of society ; its pains and its follies 
we may spare them. The manners of young people will not 
be injured by this arrangement ; they will be at ease in com- 
pany, because whenever they are introduced into it, they will 
make a part of it ; they will be interested and happy ; they 
will feel a proper confidence in themselves, and they will not 
be intent upon their courtesies, their frocks, their manner of 
holding their hands, or turning out their toes, the proper 
13 



£8 PRACT1CAX EDUCATION. 

placing of Sir, Madam, or your Ladyship, with all the other 
innumerable trifles which embarrass the imagination, and 
consequently the manners, of those who are taught to think 
that they are to sit still, and behave in company some way 
differently from what they behave every day in their own 
family. 

We have hitherto only spoken of acquaintance who do not 
attempt or desire to interfere in education, but who only ca- 
ress and talk nonsense to children with the best intentions 
possible : with these, parents will find it comparatively easy 
to manage ; they can contrive to employ children, or send 
them out to walk ; by cool reserve, they can readily discou- 
rage such visiters from flattering their children; and by in- 
sisting upon becoming a party in all conversations which are 
addressed to their pupils, they can, in a great measure, pre- 
vent the bad effects of inaccurate or imprudent conversation ; 
they can explain to their pupils what was left unintelligible, 
and they can counteract false associations, either at the mo- 
ment they perceive them, or at some well-chosen opportunity. 
But there is a class of acquaintance with whom it will be 
more difficult to manage ; persons who are, perhaps, on an 
intimate footing with the family, who are valued for their 
agreeable talents and estimable qualities ; who are, perhaps, 
persons of general information and good sense, and who may 
yet never have considered the subject of education ; or who, 
having partially considered it, have formed some peculiar and 
erroneous opinions. They will feel themselves entitled to talk 
upon education as well as upon any other topic ; they will 
hazard, and they will support, opinions ; they will be eager 
to prove the truth of their assertions, or the superiority of 
their favourite theories. Out of pure regard for their friends, 
they will endeavour to bring them over to their own way of 
thinking in education ; and they will by looks, by hints, by 
inuendoes, unrestrained by the presence of the children, in- 
sinuate their advice and their judgment upon every domestic 
occurrence. In the heat of debate, people frequently forget 
that children have eyes and ears, or any portion of under- 
standing ; they are not aware of the quickness of that com- 
prehension which is excited by the motives of curiosity and 
self-love. It is dangerous to let children be present at any 
arguments, in which the management of their minds is con- 
cerned, until they can perfectly understand the whole of the 
subject : they will, if they catch but a few words, or a few 
ideas, imagine, perhaps, that there is something wrong, some 
hardships, some injustice, practised against them by their 
friends ; yet they will not distinctly know, nor will they, per- 
haps, explicitly inquire what it is. They should be sent out 
of the room before any such arguments are begun: or. if the 



ACQUAINTANCE. 99 

conversation be abruptly begun before parents can be upon 
their guard, they may yet, without offending against the com- 
mon forms of politeness, decline entering into any discussion 
until their children are withdrawn. As to any direct attempt 
practically to interfere with the children's education, by 
blame or praise, by presents, by books, or by conversation ; 
these should, and really must, be resolutely and steadily re- 
sisted by parents : this will require some strength of mind. 
What can be done without it? Many people, who are con- 
vinced of the danger of the interference of friends and ac- 
quaintance in the education of their children, will yet, from the 
fear of offending, from the dread of being thought singular, sub- 
mit to the evil. These persons may be very well received, and 
very well liked in the world : they must content themselves with 
this reward ; they must not expect to succeed in education, for 
strength of mind is absolutely necessary to those who would 
carry a plan of education into effect. Without being tied down 
to any one exclusive plan, and with universal toleration for dif- 
ferent modes of moral and intellectual instruction, it may be 
safely asserted, that the plan which is most steadily pursued, 
will probably succeed the best. People who are moved by the 
advice of all their friends, and who endeavour to adapt their 
system to every fashionable change in opinion, will inevitably 
repent of their weak complaisance ; they will lose all power 
over their pupils, and will be forced to abandon the education 
of their families to chance. 

It will be found impossible to educate a child at home, un- 
less all interference from visiters and acquaintance is pre- 
cluded. But it is of yet more consequence, that the members 
of the family must entirely agree in their sentiments, or at 
least in the conduct of the children under their care. With- 
out this there is no hope. Young people perceive very quick- 
ly, whether there is unanimity in their government ; they 
make out an alphabet of looks with unerring precision, and 
decypher with amazing ingenuity, all that is for their interest 
to understand. When children are blamed or punished, they 
always know pretty well who pities them, who thinks that 
they are in the wrong, and who thinks that they are in the 
right ; and thus the influence of public opinion is what ulti- 
mately governs. If children find that, when mamma is dis- 
pleased, grandmamma comforts them, they will console them- 
selves readily under this partial disgrace, and they will sus- 
pect others of caprice, instead of ever blaming themselves. 
They will feel little confidence in their own experience, or in 
the assertions of others; they will think that there is always 
some chance of escape amongst the multitude of laws and 
law-givers. No tutor or preceptor can be answerable, or 
ought to undertake to answer for measures which he does not 

i L.ofC. 



100 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

guide. Le Sage, with an inimitable mixture of humour and 
good sense, in the short history of the education of the rob- 
bers who supped in that cave in which dame Leonardo officia- 
ted, has given many excellent lessons in education. Captain 
Rolando's tutors could never make any thing of him, because, 
whenever they reprimanded him, he ran to his mother, father, 
and grandfather, for consolation ; and from them constantly 
received protection in rebellion, and commiseration for the 
wounds which he had inflicted upon his own hands and face, 
purposely to excite compassion, and to obtain revenge. 

It is obviously impossible, that all the world, the ignorant 
and the well-informed, the man of genius, the man of fashion, 
and the man of business, the pedant and the philosopher, 
should agree in their opinion upon any speculative subject ; 
upon the wide subject of education they will probably differ 
eternally. It will, therefore, be thought absurd to require 
this union of opinion amongst the individuals of a family ; but, 
let there be ever so much difference in their private opinions, 
they can surely discuss any disputed point at leisure, when 
children are absent, or they can, in these arguments, converse 
in French, or in some language which their pupils do not un- 
derstand. — The same caution should be observed, as we just 
now recommended, with respect to acquaintance. It is much 
better, when any difficulties occur, to send the children at 
once into any other room, and to tell them that we do so be- 
cause we have something to say that we do not wish them to 
hear, than to make false excuses to get rid of their company, 
or to begin whispering and disputing in their presence. 

These precautions are advisable whilst our pupils are young, 
before they are capable of comprehending arguments of this 
nature, and whilst their passions are vehemently interested on 
one side or the other. As young people grow up, the greater 
variety of opinions thej^ hear upon all subjests, the better ; 
they will then form the habit of judging for themselves : 
•whilst they are very young, they have not the means of form- 
ing correct judgments upon abstract subjects, nor are these the 
subjects upon which their judgment can be properly exercised : 
upon the subject of education, they cannot be competent 
judges, because they cannot, till they are nearly educated, 
have a complete view of the means, or of the end ; besides 
this, no man is allowed to be judge in his own case. 

Some parents allow their children a vast deal of liberty 
whilst they are young, and restrain them by absolute author- 
ity when their reason is, or ought to be, a sufficient guide for 
their conduct. The contrary practice will make parents 
much more beloved, and will make children both wiser and 
happier. Let no idle visiter, no intrusive, injudicious friend, 
for one moment interfere to lessen the authority necessary 



ACQUAINTANCE, 101 

for the purposes of education. Let no weak jealousy, no un- 
seasonable love of command, restrain young people after they 
are sufficiently reasonable to judge for themselves. In the 
choice of their friends, their acquaintance, in all the great 
and small affairs of life, let them have liberty in proportion 
as they acquire reason. Fathers do not commonly interfere 
with their sons' amusements, nor with the choice of their ac- 
quaintance, so much as in the regulation of their pecuniary 
affairs : but mothers, who have had any considerable share 
in the education of boys, are apt to make mistakes as to the 
proper seasons for indulgence and control. They do not 
watch the moments when dangerous prejudices and tastes be- 
gin to be formed ; they do not perceive how the slight con- 
versations of acquaintance operate upon the ever-open ear of 
childhood ; but when the age of passion approaches, and ap- 
proaches, as it usually does, in storms and tempest, then all 
their maternal fears are suddenly roused, and their anxiety 
prompts them to use a thousand injudicious and ineffectual 
expedients. 

A modern princess, who had taken considerable pains in 
the education of her son, made both herself and him ridicu- 
lous by her anxiety upon his introduction into the world. 
She travelled about with him from place to place, to make him 
see every thing worth seeing ; but he was not to stir from her 
presence ; she could not bear to have him out of sight or hear- 
ing. In all companies he was chaperoned by his mother. 
Was he invited to a ball, she must be invited also, or he could 
not accept of the invitation : he must go in the same coach, 
and return in the same coach with her. " I should like ex- 
tremely to dance another dance," said he one evening to his 
partner, " but you see I must go ; my mother is putting on 
her cloak." The tall young man called for some negus, and 
had the glass at his lips, when his mamma called out in a 
shrill voice, through a vista of heads, " Eh ! My son no drink 
wine ! My son like milk and water !" The son was at this- 
time at years of discretion. 



102 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ON TEMPER. 

We have already, in speaking of the early care of infants, 
suggested that the temper should be attended to from the mo- 
ment of their birth. A negligent, a careless, a passionate ser- 
vant, must necessarily injure the temper of a child. The first 
language of an infant is intelligible only to its nurse; she can 
distinguish between the cry of pain and the note of ill humour, 
or the roar of passion. The cry of pain should be listened to 
with the utmost care, and every possible means should be 
used to relieve the child's sufferings ; but when it is obvious 
that he cries from ill humour, a nurse should not sooth him 
with looks of affection, these she should reserve for the mo- 
ment when the storm is over. We do not mean that infants 
should be suffered to cry for a length of time without being 
regarded ; this would give them habits of ill humour : we only 
wash that the nurse would, as soon as possible, teach the child 
that what he wants can be obtained without his putting him- 
self in a passion. Great care should be taken to prevent oc- 
casions for ill humour ; if a nurse neglects her charge, or if 
she be herself passionate, the child will suffer so much pain, 
and so many disappointments, that it must be in a continual 
state of fretfulness. An active, cheerful, good humoured, in- 
telligent nurse, will make a child good humoured by a regu- 
lar, affectionate attendance ; by endeavouring to prevent all 
unnecessary sufferings, and by quickly comprehending its 
language of signs. The best humoured woman in the world, 
if she is stupid, is not fit to have the care of a child ; the 
child will not be able to make her understand any thing less 
than vociferation. By way of amusing the infant, she will 
fatigue it with her caresses ; without ever discovering the real 
cause of his woe, she will sing one universal lullaby upon all 
occasions to pacify her charge. 

It requires some ingenuity to discover the cause and cure 
of those long and loud fits of crying, which frequently arise 
from imaginary apprehensions. A little boy of two years 
old, used to cry violently when he awoke in the middle of 
the night, and saw a candle in the room. It was observed 
that the shadow of the person who was moving about in the 
room frightened him, and as soon as the cause of his crying 
was found out, it was easy to pacify him ; his fear of shadows 



TEMPER. 103 

was effectually cured, by playfully showing him, at different 
times, that shadows had no power to hurt him. 

H , about nine months old, when she first began to ob- 
serve the hardness of bodies, let her hand fall upon a cat 
which had crept unperceived upon the table ; she was surpri- 
sed and terrified by the unexpected sensation of softness ; she 
could not touch the cat, or any thing that felt like soft fur, 
without showing agitation, till she was near four years old, 
though every gentle means were used to conquer her antip- 
athy ; the antipathy was, however, cured at last, by her hav- 
ing a wooden cat covered with fur for a plaything. 

A boy, between four and five years old, H , used to cry 

bitterly when he was left alone in a room, in which there- 
were some old family pictures. It was found that he was 
much afraid of these pictures: a maid, who took care of him, 
had terrified him with the notion that they would come 
to him, or that they were looking at him, and would be 
angry with him if he was not good. To cure the child 
of this fear of pictures, a small sized portrait, which was 
not amongst the number of those that had frightened him, 
was produced in broad day light. A piece of cake was 
put upon this picture, which the boy was desired to take ; 
he took it, touched the picture, and was shown the canvas at 
the back of it, which, as it happened to be torn, he could ea- 
sily identify with the painting : the picture was then given to 
him for a plaything ; he made use of it as a table, and be- 
came very fond of it as soon as he was convinced that it was 
not alive, and that it could do him no sort of injury. 

By patiently endeavouring to discover the causes of terror 
in children, we may probably prevent their tempers from ac- 
quiring many bad habits. It is scarcely possible for any one, 
who has not constantly lived with a child, and who has not 
known the whole rise and progress of his little character, to 
trace the causes of these strange apprehensions ; for this rea- 
son, a parent has advantages in the education of his child, 
which no tutor or schoolmaster can have. 

A little boy was observed to show signs of fear and dislike 
at hearing the sound of a drum : to a stranger, such fear must 
have seemed unaccountable, but those who lived with the 
child, knew from what it arose. He had been terrified by 
the sight of a merry-andrew in a mask, who had played upon 
a drum ; this was the first time that he had ever heard the 
sound of a drum ; the sound was associated with fear, and 
continued to raise apprehensions in the child's mind after he 
had forgotten the original cause of that apprehension. 

We are well, aware that we have laid ourselves open to 
ridicule, by the apparently trifling anecdotes which have just 
been mentioned ; but if we can save one child from an hour's 



104 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

unnecessary misery, or one parent from an hour's anxiety, we 
shall bear the laugh, we hope, with good humour. 

Young children, who have not a great number of ideas, 
perhaps for that reason associate those which they acquire 
with tenacity ; they cannot reason concerning general causes ; 
they expect that any event, which has once or twice followed 
another, will always follow in the same order ; they do not 
distinguish between proximate and remote causes, between 
coincidences and the regular connexion of cause and 
effect : hence children are subject to feel hopes and fears 
from things which to us appear matters of indifference. 
Suppose, for instance, that a child is very eager to go out to 
walk, that his mother puts on her gloves and her cloak ; 
these being the usual signals that she is going out, he instantly 
expects, if he has been accustomed to accompany her, that 
he shall have the pleasure of walking out ; but if she goes 
out, and forgets him, he is not only disappointed at that mo- 
ment, but the disappointment, or, at least, some indistinct ap- 
prehension, recurs to him when he is in a similar situation : 
the putting on of his mother's cloak and gloves, are then cir- 
cumstances of vast importance to him, and create anxiety, 
perhaps tears, whilst to every other spectator they are mat- 
ters of total indifference. Every one, who has had any ex- 
perience in the education of such children as are apt to form 
strong associations, must be aware, that many of those fits of 
crying, which appear to arise solely from ill humour, are oc- 
casioned by association. When these are suffered to become 
habitual, they are extremely difficult to conquer : it is, there- 
fore, best to conquer them as soon as possible. If a child 
has, by any accident, been disposed to cry at particular times 
in the day, without any obvious cause, we should at those 
hours engage his attention, occupy him, change the room he 
is in, or by any new circumstance break his habits. It will 
require some penetration to distinguish between involuntary 
tears, and tears of caprice ; but even when children are really 
cross / it is not, whilst they are very young, prudent to let them 
wear out their ill-humour, as some people do, in total neglect. 
Children, when they are left to weep in solitude, often con- 
tinue in woe for a considerable length of time, until they quite 
forget the original cause of complaint, and they continue their 
convulsive sobs, and whining note of distress, purely from in- 
ability to stop themselves. 

Thus habits of ill-humour are contracted ; it is better, by a 
little Well-timed excitation, to turn the course of a child's 
thoughts, and to make him forget his trivial miseries. " The 
tear forgot as soon as shed," is far better than the peevish 
whine, or sullen lowering brow, which proclaim the uncon- 
quered spirit of discontent. 



TEMPER. 105 

Perhaps from the anxiety which we have expressed to pre- 
vent the petty misfortunes, and unnecessary tears of children, 
it may be supposed that we are disposed to humour them ; 
far from it — We know too well that a humoured child is one 
of the most unhappy beings in the world ; a burden to him- 
self, and to his friends ; capricious, tyrannical, passionate, 
peevish, sullen, and selfish. 

An only child runs a dreadful chance of being spoiled. He 
is born a person of consequence ; he soon discovers his in- 
nate merit ; every eye is turned upon him the moment he 
enters the room ; his looks, his dress, his appetite, are all 
matters of daily concern to a whole family ; his wishes are 
divined ; his wants are prevented ; his witty sayings are re- 
peated in his presence ; his smiles are courted ; his caresses 
excite jealousy, and he soon learns how to avail himself of 
his central situation. His father and mother make him alter- 
nately their idol, and their plaything; they do not think of 
educating, they only thing of admiring him: they imagine 
that he is unlike all other children in the universe, and that 
his genius and his temper are independent of all cultivation. 
But when this little paragon of perfection has two or three 
brothers and sisters, the scene changes; the man of conse- 
quence dwindles into an insignificant little boy. We shall 
hereafter explain more fully the danger of accustoming chil- 
dren to a large share of our sympathy ; we hope that the 
economy of kindness and caresses which we have recom- 
mended,* will be found to increase domestic affection, and to 
be essentially serviceable to the temper. In a future chapter, 
" On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition," some remarks will be 
found on the use and abuse of the stimuli of praise, emula* 
tion, and ambition. The precautions which we have already 
mentioned with respect to servants, and the methods that have 
been suggested for inducing habitual and rational obedience, 
will also, we hope, be considered as serviceable to the tem- 
per, as well as to the understanding. Perpetual and contra- 
dictory commands and prohibitions, not only make children 
disobedient, but fretful, peevish, and passionate. 

Idleness, amongst children, as amongst men, is the root of 
all evil, and leads to no evil more certainly than to ill temper. 
It is said,t that the late king of Spain was always so cross 
during Passion week, when he was obliged to abstain from 
his favourite amusement of hunting, that none of his courtiers 
liked to approach his majesty. There is a great similarity 



* V. Chapter on Sympathy and Sensibility, 
t By Mr. Townsend, in his Travels into Spain. 
14 



106 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

between the condition of a prince flattered by his courtiers, 
and a child humoured by his family ; and we may observe, 
that both the child and prince are most intolerable to their 
dependants and friends, when any of their daily amusements 
are interrupted. It is not that the amusements are in them- 
selves delightful, but the pains and penalties of idleness are 
insupportable. We have endeavoured to provide a variety 
of occupations, as well as of amusements, for our young pu- 
pils,* that they may never know the misery of the Spanish 
monarch. When children are occupied, they are indepen- 
dent of other people, they are not obliged to watch for casual 
entertainment from those who happen to be unemployed, or 
who chance to be in a humour to play with them ; they have 
some agreeable object continually in view, and they feel satis- 
fied with themselves. They will not torment every body in 
the house with incessant requests. " May I have this ? Will 
you give me that ? May I go out to see such a thing ? When 
will it be dinner-time ? When will it be tea-time ? When will 
it be time for me to go to supper ?" are the impatient ques- 
tions of a child who is fretful from having nothing to do. 
Idle children are eternal petitioners, and the refusals they 
meet with, perpetually irritate their temper. With respect to 
requests in general, we should either grant immediately what 
a child desires, or we should give a decided refusal. The 
state of suspense is not easily borne ; the propriety or impro- 
priety of the request should decide us either to grant, or to 
refuse it ; and we should not set the example of caprice, or 
teach our pupils the arts of courtiers, who watch the humour 
of tyrants. If we happen to be busy, and a child comes with 
an eager request about some trifle, it is easy so far to com- 
mand our temper as to answer, " I am busy, don't talk to me 
now," instead of driving the petitioner away with harsh looks, 
and a peremptory refusal, which make as great an impression 
as harsh words. If we are reasonable, the child will soon 
learn to apply to us at proper times. By the same steady, 
gentle conduct, we may teach him to manage his love of talk- 
ing with discretion, and may prevent those ineffectual exhor- 
tations to silence, which irritate the temper of the vivacious 
pupil. Expostulations, and angry exclamations, will not so 
effectually command from our pupils temperance of tongue, 
as their own conviction that they are more likely to gain at- 
tention from their friends, if they choose properly their sea- 
sons for conversation. 

To prevent, we cannot too often repeat it, is better than to 
punish, without humouring children; that is to say, without 



* V. Chapter on Toys 



TEMPEK. 1 07 

yielding to their caprices, or to their will, when they express 
their wishes with impatience, we may prevent many of those 
little inconveniences which tease and provoke the temper ; 
any continual irritation exhausts our patience ; acute pain 
can be endured with more fortitude. 

We have sometimes seen children become fretful from the 
constant teasing effect of some slight inconveniences in their 
dress ; we have pitied poor little boys, who were continually 
exhorted to produce their handkerchiefs, and who could 
scarcely ever get these handkerchiefs out of the tight pockets 
into which they had been stuffed ; into such pockets the hand 
can never enter, or withdraw itself, without as much difficulty 
as Trenck had in getting rid of his handcuffs. The torture 
of tight shoes, of back-boards, collars, and stocks, we hope is 
nearly abandoned ; surely all these are unnecessary trials of 
fortitude ; they exhaust that patience which might be exer- 
cised upon things of consequence. Count Rumford tells us, 
that he observed a striking melioration in the temper of all 
the mendicants in the establishment at Munich, when they 
were relieved from the constant torments of rags and vermin. 

Some people imagine, that early sufferings, that a number 
of small inconveniences, habitual severity of reproof, and fre* 
quent contradiction and disappointment, inure children to 
pain, and consequently improve their temper. Early suffer- 
ings, which are necessary and inevitable, may improve chil- 
dren in fortitude ; but the contradictions and disappointments, 
which arise immediately from the will of others, have not 
the same effect. Children, where their own interests are 
concerned, soon distinguish between these two classes of 
evils ; they submit patiently when they know that it would be 
in vain to struggle ; they murmur and rebel, if they dare, 
whenever they feel the hand of power press upon them ca- 
priciously. We should not invent trials of temper for our pu- 
pils ; if they can bear with good humour the common course 
of events, we should be satisfied. 

" I tumbled down, and I bored it very well," said a little 
boy of three years old, with a look of great satisfaction. If 
this little boy had been thrown down on purpose by his pa- 
rents as a trial of temper, it probably would not have been 
borne so well. As to inconveniences, in general it is rather 
a sign of indolence, than a proof of good temper in children, 
to submit to them quietly ; if they can be remedied by exer- 
tion, why should they be passively endured ? If they cannot 
be remedied, undoubtedly it is then better to abstract the at- 
tention from them as much as possible, because this is the 
only method of lessening the pain. Children should be as- 
sisted in making this distinction, by our applauding their ex- 
ertions, when they struggle against unnecessary evil, by our 



108 PRACTICAL EBUCATI05T. 

commending their patience whenever they endure inevitable 
pain without complaints. 

illness, for instance, is an inevitable evil. To prevent chil- 
dren from becoming peevish, when they are ill, we should 
give our pity and sympathy with an increased appearance of 
affection, whenever they bear their illness with patience. No 
artifice is necessary; we need not affect any increase of 
pity ; patience and good humour in the sufferer, naturally ex- 
cite the affection and esteem of the spectators. The self- 
complacency, which the young patient must feel from a sense 
of his own fortitude, and the perception that he commands 
the willing hearts of all who attend him, are really allevia- 
tions of his bodily sufferings ; the only alleviations which, in 
some cases, can possibly be afforded. 

The attention which is thought necessary in learning lan- 
guages, often becomes extremely painful to the pupils, and 
the temper is often hurt by ineffectual attempts to improve 
the understanding. We have endeavoured to explain the 
methods of managing* the attention of children with the least 
possible degree of pain. Yesterday a little boy of three 

years old, W , was learning his alphabet from his father; 

after he had looked at one letter for some time with great at- 
tention, he raised his eyes, and with a look of much good hu- 
mour, said to his father, " It makes me tired to stand." His 
father seated him upon his knee, and told him that he did 
wisely in telling what tired him : the child, the moment he 
was seated, fixed his attentive eyes again upon his letters with 
fresh eagerness, and succeeded. Surely it was not humour- 
ing this boy to let him sit down when he was tired. If we 
teach a child that our assistance is to be purchased by fret- 
ful entreaties ; if we show him, that we are afraid of a storm, 
he will make use of our apprehensions to accomplish his pur- 
poses. On the contrary, if he perceives that we can steadily 
resist his tears and ill humour, and especially if we show in- 
difference upon the occasion, he will perceive that he had 
better dry his tears, suspend his rage, and try how far good 
humour will prevail. Children, who in every little difficulty 
are assisted by others, really believe that others are in fault 
whenever this assistance is not immediately offered. Look 
at a humoured child, for instance, trying to push a chair 
along the carpet ; if a wrinkle in the carpet stops his progress, 
he either beats the chair, or instantly turns with an angry ap- 
pealing look to his mother for assistance ; and if she does not 
get up to help him, he will cry. Another boy, who has not 
been humoured, will neither beat the chair, nor angrily look 



* V. Chapter on Attention. 



TEMPER. 109 

round for help ; but he will look immediately to see what it 
is that stops the chair, and when he sees the wrinkle in the 
carpet, he will either level or surmount the obstacle : during 
this whole operation, he will not feel in the least inclined to 
cry. Both these children might have had precisely the same 
original stock of patience ; but by different management, the 
one would become passionate and peevish, the other both 
good humoured and persevering. The pleasure of success 
pays children, as well as men, for long toil and labour. Suc- 
cess is the proper reward of perseverance ; but if we some- 
times capriciously grant, and sometimes refuse, our help, our 
pupils cannot learn this important truth, and they imagine 
that success depends upon the will of others, and not upon 
their own efforts. A child, educated by a fairy, who some- 
times came with magic aid to perform, and who was some- 
times deaf to her call, would necessarily become ill humoured. 

Several children, who were reading " Evenings at Home," 
observed that in the story of Juliet and the fairy Order, " it 
was wrong to make the fairy come whenever Juliet cried, and 
could not do her task, because that was the way, said the 
children, to make the little girl ill-humoured." 

We have formerly observed that children, who live much 
with companions of their own age, are under but little habitual 
restraint as to their tempers ; they quarrel, fight, and shake 
hands ; they have long and loud altercations, in which the 
Strongest voice often gets the better. It does not improve the 
temper to be overborne by petulance and clamour : even 
mild, sensible children, will learn to be positive, if they con- 
verse with violent dunces. In private families, where child- 
ren mix in the society of persons of different ages, who en- 
courage them to converse without reserve, they may meet 
with exact justice ; they may see that their respective talents 
and good qualities are appreciated ; they may acquire the 
habit of arguing without disputing ; and they may learn that 
species of mutual forbearance in trifles, as well as in matters 
of consequence, which tends so much to domestic happiness. 
Dr. Franklin, in one of his letters to a young female friend, 
after answering some questions which she had asked him, ap- 
parently referring to an argument which had passed some 
time before, concludes with this comprehensive compliment : 
" So, you see, I think you had the best of the argument ; and, 
as you give it up in complaisance to the company, I think you 
had also the best of the dispute.'''' When young people per- 
ceive that they gain credit by keeping their temper in con- 
versation, they will not be furious for victory, because mode- 
ration, during the time of battle, can alone entitle them to the 
honours of a triumph. 



110 TUACTICAL EDUCATION. 

It is particularly necessary for girls to acquire command 
of temper in arguing, because much of the effect of their pow- 
ers of reasoning, and of their wit, when they grow up, will 
depend upon the gentleness and good humour with which they 
conduct themselves. A woman, who should attempt to thun-r 
der like Demosthenes, would not find her eloquence increase 
her domestic happiness. We by no means wish that women 
should yield their better judgment to their fathers or hus- 
bands ; but, without using any of that debasing cunning which 
Rousseau recommends, they may support the cause of reason 
with all the graces of female gentleness. 

A man, in a furious passion, is terrible to his enemies ; but 
a woman in a passion, is disgusting to her friends ; she loses 
the respect due to her sex, and she has not masculine strength 
and courage to enforce any other species of respect. These 
circumstances should be considered by writers who advise 
that no difference should be made in the education of the two 
sexes. We cannot help thinking that their happiness is of 
more consequence than their speculative rights, and we wish 
to educate women so that they may be happy in the situations 
in which they are most likely to be placed. So much de- 
pends upon the temper of women, that it ought to be most 
carefully cultivated in early life ; girls should be more inured 
to restraint than boys, because they are likely to meet with 
more restraint in society. Girls should learn the habit of 
bearing slight reproofs, without thinking them matters of great 
consequence ; but then they should always be permitted to 
state their arguments, and they should perceive that justice is 
shown to them, and that they increase the affection and es- 
teem of their friends by command of temper. Many passion- 
ate men are extremely good natured, and make amends for 
their extravagancies by their candour, and their eagerness to 
please those whom they have injured during their fits of an- 
ger. It is said, that the servants of Dean Swift used to throw 
themselves in his way whenever he was in a passion, because 
they knew that his generosity would recompense them for 
standing the full fire of his anger. A woman, who permitted 
herself to treat her servants with ill-humour, and who believed 
that she could pay them for ill usage, would make a very bad 
mistress of a family ; her husband and her children would 
suffer from her ill temper, without being recompensed for 
their misery. We should not let girls imagine that they can 
balance ill humour by some good quality or accomplishment ; 
because, in fact, there are none which can supply the want of 
temper in the female sex. 

A just idea of the nature of dignity, opposed to what is 
commonly called spirit, should be given early to our female 
pupils. Many women, who arc not disposed to violence of 



TEMPEK. Ill 

/ 

temper, affect a certain degree of petulance, and a certain 
stubbornness of opinion, merely because they imagine that to 
be gentle, is to be mean ; and that to listen to reason, is to be 
deficient in spirit. 

Enlarging the understanding of young women, will prevent, 
them from the trifling vexations which irritate those who have 
none but trifling objects. We have observed that concerted 
trials of temper are not advantageous for very young children. 
Those trials which are sometimes prepared for pupils at a 
more advanced period of education, are not always more hap- 
py in their consequences. We make trifles appear important ; 
and then we are surprised that they are thought so. 

Lord Karnes tells us that he was acquainted with a gentle- 
man, who, though otherwise a man of good understanding, did 
not show his good sense in the education of his daughters' 
temper. " He had," says Lord Karnes, " three comely 
daughters, between twelve and sixteen, and to inure them to bear 
disappointments, he would propose to make a visit which he 
knew would delight them. The coach was bespoke, and the 
young ladies, completely armed for conquest, were ready to 
take their seats. But, behold ! their father had changed his 
mind. This, indeed, was a disappointment ; but as it appear- 
ed to proceed from whim, or caprice, it might sour their tem- 
per, instead of improving it."* 

But why should a visit be made of such mighty conse- 
quence to girls 1 Why should it be a disappointment to stay 
at home ? And why should Lord Karnes advise that disap- 
pointments should be made to appear the effects of chance? 
This method of making things appear to be what they are 
not, we cannot too often reprobate ; it will not have better 
success in the education of the temper, than in the manage- 
ment of the understanding ; it would ruin the one or the 
other, or both : even when promises are made with perfect 
good faith to young people, the state of suspense which they 
create is not serviceable to the temper, and it is extremely 
difficult to promise proper rewards.! The celebrated Serena 
surely established her reputation for good temper, without 
any very severe trials. Our standard of female excellence, 
is evidently changed since the days of Griselda ; but we are 
inclined to think, that even in these degenerate days, public 
amusements would not fill the female imagination, if they were 
not early represented as such charming things, such great re- 
wards to girls by their imprudent friends. 

The temper depends much upon the understanding ; and 
whenever we give our pupils, whether male or female, false 



* Lord Kames, p. 109. 

t V. Chapter on Rewards and Punishments. 



112 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ideas of pleasure, we prepare for them innumerable causes of 
discontent. " You ought to be above such things ! You 
ought not to let yourself be vexed by such trifles !" are com- 
mon expressions, which do not immediately change the irri- 
tated person's feelings. You must alter the habits of think- 
ing ; you must change the view of the object, before you can 
alter the feelings. Suppose a girl has, from the conversation 
of all her acquaintance, learned to imagine that there is some 
vast pleasure in going to a masquerade ; it is in vain to tell 
her, in the moment that she is disappointed about her 
masquerade dress, that " it is a trifle, and she ought to be 
above trifles." She cannot be above them at a moment's 
warning; but if she had never been inspired with a violent 
desire to go to a masquerade, the disappointment would 
really appear trifling. We may calculate the probability of 
any person's mortification, by observing the vehemence of 
their hopes ; thus we are led to observe, that the imagination 
influences the temper. Upon this subject we shall speak more 
fully when we treat of Imagination and Judgment. 

To measure the degree of indulgence which may be safe 
for any given pupils, we must attend to the effect produced by 
pleasure upon their imagination and temper. If a small dimi- 
nution of their usual enjoyments disturbs them, they have 
been rendered not too happy, but too susceptible. Happy 
people, who have resources in their own power, do not feel 
every slight variation in external circumstances. We may 
safely allow children to be as happy as they possibly can be 
without sacrificing the future to the present. Such prosperity 
will not enervate their minds. 

We make this assertion with some confidence, because ex- 
perience has in many instances confirmed our opinion. 
Amongst a large family of children, who have never been 
tormented with artificial trials of temper, and who have beea 
made as happy as it was in the power of their parents to 
make them, there is not one ill tempered child. We have ex- 
amples every day before us of different ages from three years 
old to fifteen. 

Before parents adopt either Epicurean or Stoical doctrines 
in the education of the temper, it may be prudent to calculate 
the probabilities of the good and evil, which their pupils are 
likely to meet with in life. The Sybarite, whose night's rest 
was disturbed by a doubled rose leaf, deserves to be pitied 
almost as much as the young man who, when he was benight- 
ed in the snow, was reproached by his severe father for hav- 
ing collected a heap of snow to make himself a pillow. Un- 
less we could forever insure the bed of roses to our pupils, we 
should do very imprudently to make it early necessary to 
their repose : unless the pillow of snow is likely to be their 
lot, we need not inure them to it from their infancy. 



OBEDIENCE, 113 



CHAPTER VII. 



ON OBEDIENCE. 



Obedience has been often called the virtue of childhood* 
How far it is entitled to the name of virtue, we need not at 
present stop to examine. Obedience is expected from chil- 
dren long before they can reason upon the justice of our 
commands; consequently it must be taught as a habit. By 
associating pleasure with those things which we first desire 
children to do, we should make them necessarily like to obey ; 
on the contrary, if we begin by ordering them to do what is 
difficult and disagreeable to them, they must dislike obedi- 
ence. The poet seems to understand this subject when he 



says 



" Or bid her wear your necklace rowed with pearl, 
You'll find your Fanny an obedient girl."* 

The taste for a necklace rowed with pearl, is -pot the first 
taste, even in girls, that we should wish to cultivate ; but the 
poet's principle is good, notwithstanding. Bid your child do 
things that are agreeable to him, and you may be sure of his 
obedience. Bid a hungry boy eat apple pye ; order a shiv- 
ering urchin to warm himself at a good fire ; desire him to go 
to bed when you see him yawn with fatigue, and by such sea- 
sonable commands you will soon form associations of pleas-» 
ure in his mind, with the voice and tone of authority. This 
tone should never be threatening, or alarming; it should be 
gentle, but decided. Whenever it becomes necessary that a 
child should do what he feels disagreeable, it is better to make 
him submit at once to necessity, than to create any doubt and 
struggle in his mind, by leaving him a possibility of resistance. 
Suppose a little boy wishes to sit up later than the hour at 
which you think proper that he should go to bed ; it is most 
prudent to take him to bed at the appointed time, without say- 
ing one \vord to him, either in the way of entreaty or com- 
mand. If you entreat, you give the child an idea that he has 
it in his power to refuse you : if you command, and he does 



* Elegy on an old tteauty.— Parnei,. 
15 



114 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

not instantly obey, you hazard your authority, and you teach 
him that he can successfully set his will in opposition to yours. 
The boy wishes to sit up ; he sees no reason, in the moral fit- 
ness of things, why he should go to bed at one hour more than 
at another ; all he perceives is, that such is your will. What 
does he gain by obeying you ? Nothing : he loses the pleas- 
ure of sitting up half an hour longer. How can you then 
expect that he should, in consequence of these reasonings, 
give up his obvious immediate interest, and march off to bed 
heroically at the word of command ? Let him not be put to 
the trial ; when he has for some time been regularly taken to 
bed at a fixed hour, he will acquire the habit of thinking that 
he must go at that hour: association will make him expect it; 
and if his experience has been uniform, he will, without 
knowing why, think it necessary that he should do as he has 
been used to do. When the habit of obedience to customary 
necessity is thus formed, we may, without much risk, engraft 
upon it obedience to the voice of authority. For instance, 
when the boy hears the clock strike, the usual signal for his 
departure, you may, if you see that he is habitually ready to 
obey this signal, associate your commands with that to which 
he has already learned to pay attention. " Go ; it is time 
that you should go to bed now," will only seem to the child a 
confirmation of the sentence already pronounced by the 
clock : by degrees, your commands, after they have been 
regularly repealed, when the child feels no hope of evading 
them, will, even in new circumstances, have from association 
the power of compelling obedience. 

Whenever we desire a child to do any thing, we should be 
perfectly certain, not only that it is a thing which he is capa- 
ble of doing, but also, that it is something we can, in case it 
comes to that ultimate argument, force him to do. You can- 
not oblige a child to stand up, if he has a mind to sit down : 
or to walk, if he does not choose to exert his muscles for that 
purpose : but you can absolutely prevent him from touching 
whatever you desire him not to meddle with, by your superior 
strength. It is best, then, to begin with prohibitions ; with 
such prohibitions as you can, and will, steadily persevere to 
enforce: if you are not exact in requiring obedience, you will 
never obtain it either by persuasion or authority. As it will 
require a considerable portion of time and unremitting atten- 
tion, to enforce the punctual observance of a variety of pro- 
hibitions, it will, for your own sake, be most prudent to issue 
as few edicts as possible, and to be sparing in the use of the 
imperative mood. It will, if you calculate the trouble you 
must take day after day to watch your pupil, cost you less to 
begin by arranging every circumstance in your power, so as 
to prevent the necessity of trusting to laws what ought to be 



OBEDIENCE. 115 

guarded against by precaution. Do you, for instance, wish 
to prevent your son from breaking a beautiful china jar in 
your drawing room ; instead of forbidding him to touch it, 
put it out of his reach. — Would you prevent your son from 
talking to servants ; let your house, in the first place, be so 
arranged, that he shall never be obliged to pass through any 
rooms where he is likely to meet with servants ; let all his 
wants be gratified without their interference; let him be able 
to get at his hat without asking the footman to reach it for 
him, from its inaccessible height.* The simple expedient of 
hanging the hat in a place where the boy can reach it, will 
save you the trouble of continually repeating, " Don't ask 
William, child, to reach your hat ; can't you come and ask 
me ?" Yes, the boy can come and ask you ; but if you are 
busy, you will not like to go in quest of the hat ; your reluc- 
tance will possibly appear in your countenance, and the 
child, who understands the language of looks better than that 
of words, will clearly comprehend, that you are displeased 
with him at the very instant that he is fulfilling the letter of 
the law. 

A lady, who was fond of having her house well arranged, 
discovered, to the amazement of her acquaintance, the art of 
making all her servants keep every thing in its place. Even 
in the kitchen, from the most minute article to the most un- 
wieldy, every thing w r as invariably to be found in its allotted 
station ; the servants were thought miracles of obedience ; 
but, in fact, they obeyed because it was the easiest thing they 
could possibly do. Order was made more convenient to them 
than disorder, and, with their utmost ingenuity to save them- 
selves trouble, they could not invent places for every thing 
more appropriate than those which had been assigned by 
their mistress's legislative economy. In the same manner we 
may secure the orderly obedience of children, without ex- 
hausting their patience or our own. Rousseau advises, that 
children should be governed solely by the necessity of cir- 
cumstances ; but there are one. and twenty excellent objections 
to this system ; the first being, that it is impossible : of this 
Rousseau must have been sensible in the trials w r hich he 
made as a preceptor. When he had the management of a 
refractory child, he found himself obliged to invent and ar- 
range a whole drama, by artificial experience, to convince his 
little pupil, that he had better not walk out in the streets of 
Paris alone ; and that, therefore, he should wait until his pu- 
pil could conveniently accompany him. Rousseau had pre- 
pared the neighbours on each side of the street to make pro- 



* Rousseau. 



116 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 

per speeches as his pupil passed by their doors, which alarm- 
ed and piqued the boy effectually. At length the child was 
met, at a proper time, by a friend who had been appointed to 
watch him ; and thus he was brought home submissive. This 
scene, as Rousseau observes, was admirably well performed ;* 
but what occasion could there be for so much contrivance and 
deceit? If his pupil had not been uncommonly deficient in 
penetration, he would soon have discovered his preceptor in 
some of his artifices; then adieu both to obedience and con- 
fidence. A false idea of the pleasures of liberty misled 
Rousseau. Children have not our abstract ideas of the 
pleasures of liberty ; they do not, until they have suffered from 
ill judged restraints, feel any strong desire to exercise what 
we call free will ; liberty is, with them, the liberty of doing 
certain specific things which they have found to be agreeable ; 
liberty is not the general idea of pleasure, in doing whatever 
they will to do. Rousseau desires, that we should not let our 
pupil know, that in doing our will he is obedient to us. But why ? 
Why should we not let a child know the truth ? If we attempt 
to conceal it, we shall only get into endless absurdities and 
difficulties. Lord Kames tells us, that he was acquainted 
with a couple, who, in the education of their family, pursued 
as much as possible Rousseau's plan. One evening, as the 
father was playing at chess with a friend, one of his children, 
a boy of about four years old, took a piece from the board, 
and ran away to play with it. The father, whose principles 
would not permit him to assert his right to his own chessman, 
began to bargain for his property with his son. " Harry," 
said he, " let us have back the man, and there's an apple for 
you." The apple was soon devoured, and the child returned 
to the chess-board, and kidnapped another chessman. What 
this man's ransom might be, we are not yet informed ; but 
Lord Kames tells us, that the father was obliged to suspend his 
game at chess until his son was led away to his supper. Does 
it seem just, that parents should become slaves to the liber- 
ties of their children ? If one set of beings or another should 
sacrifice a portion of happiness, surely those who are the most 
useful, and the most capable of increasing the knowledge and 
the pleasures of life, have some claim to a preference ; and 
when the power is entirely in their own hands, it is most pro- 
bable that they will defend their own interests. We shall 
not, like many who have spoken of Rousseau, steal from him 
after having abused him. His remarks upon the absurd and 
tyrannical restraints which are continually imposed upon 
children by the folly of nurses and servants, or by the im- 



* Emilius, vol. i. page 23. 



OBEDIENCE. 117 

prudent anxiety of parents and preceptors, are excellent. 
Whenever Rousseau is in the right, his eloquence is irresist- 
ible. 

To determine what degree of obedience it is just to require 
from children, we must always consider what degree of 
reason they possess : whenever we can use reason, we 
should never use force ; it is only whilst children are too 
young to comprehend reason,* that we should expect from 
them implicit submission. The means which have been 
pointed out for teaching the habit of obedience, must not 
be depended upon for teaching any thing more than the 
mere habit. "When children begin to reason, they do not 
act merely from habit ; they will not be obedient at this age, 
unless their understanding is convinced that it is for their ad- 
vantage to be so. Wherever we can explain the reasons for 
any of our requests, we should attempt it ; but whenever these 
cannot be fully explained, it is better not to give a partial ex- 
planation ; it will be best to say steadily, " You cannot un- 
derstand this now, you will, perhaps, understand it some time 
hence." Whenever we tell children, that w r e forbid them to 
do such and such things for any particular reason, we must 
take care that the reason assigned is adequate, and that it will 
in all cases hold good. For instance, if we forbid a boy to 
eat unripe fruit, because it will make him ill, and if afterwards 
the boy eat some unripe gooseberries without feeling ill in 
consequence of his disobedience, he will doubt the truth of the 
person who prohibited unripe fruit; he will rather trust his 
own partial experience than any assertions. The idea of 
hurting his health, is a general idea, which he does not yet 
comprehend. It is more prudent to keep him out of the way 
of unripe gooseberries, than to hazard at once his obedience 
and his integrity. We need not expatiate further ; the in- 
stance we have given, may be readily applied to all cases in 
which children have it in their power to disobey with immedi- 
ate impunity, and, what is still more dangerous, with the cer- 
tainty of obtaining immediate pleasure. The gratification of 
their senses, and the desire of bodily exercise, ought never to 
be unnecessarily restrained. Our pupils should distinctly 
perceive, that we wish to make them happy, and every in- 
stance, in which they discover that obedience has really made 
them happier, will be more in our favour, than all the lectures 
we could preach. From the past, they will judge of the fu- 
ture. Children, who have for many years experienced, that 
their parents have exacted obedience only to such commands 
as proved to be ultimately wise and beneficial, will surely be 



Vol. i. page 59. 



118 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

disposed from habit, from gratitude, and yet more from pru- 
dence, to consult their parents in all the material actions of 
their lives. 

We may observe, that the spirit of contradiction, which some- 
times breaks out in young people the moment they are able to 
act for themselves, arises frequently from slight causes in their 
early education. Children, who have experienced, that sub- 
mission to the will of others has constantly made them unhap- 
py, will necessarily, by reasoning inversely, imagine, that fe- 
licity consists in following their own free will." 

The French poet Boileau was made very unhappy by ne- 
glect and restraint during his education : when he grew up, 
he would never agree with those who talked to him of the 
pleasures of childhood.* " Peut on," disoit ce poete amoureux 
de Independence, " ne pas regarder comme un grand mal- 
heur, le chagrin continue! et particulier a cet age, de ne jamais 
faire sa volonte ?" It was in vain, continues his biographer, to 
boast to him of the advantages of this happy constraint which 
saves youth from so many follies. " What signifies our know- 
ing the value of our chains when we have shaken them off, if 
we feel nothing but their weight whilst we wear them?" the 
galled poet used to reply. Nor did Boileau enjoy his free- 
dom, though he thought with such horror of his slavery. He 
declared, that if he had it in his choice, either to be born 
again upon the hard conditions of again going through his 
childhood, or not to exist, he would rather not exist: but he 
was not happy during any period of his existence ; he quar- 
relled with all the seasons of life ; " all seemed to him equally 
disagreeable ; youth, manhood, and old age, are each subject, 
he observed, to impetuous passions, to care, and to infirmities." 
Hence we may conclude, that the severity of his education had 
not succeeded in teaching him to submit philosophically to ne- 
cessity, or j^et in giving him much enjoyment from that liberty 
which he so much coveted. Thus it too often happens, that 
an imaginary value is set upon the exercise of the free will by 
those who, during their childhood, have suffered under injudi- 
cious restrictions. Sometimes the love of free will is so uncon- 
trollably excited, even during childhood, that it breaks out, 
unfortunately both for the pupils and the preceptors, in the 
formidable shape of obstinacy. 

Of all the faults to which children are subject, there is none 
which is more difficult to cure, or more easy to prevent, than 
obstinacy. As it is early observed by those who are engaged 
in education, it is sometimes supposed to be inherent in the 



* Histoire des Membres de l'Acade'iuie, par M. d'AIembert. Tome troisicmej 
p. 24. 



OBEDIENCE. 119 

temper ; but, so far from being naturally obstinate, infants 
show those strong propensities to sympathy and imitation 
which prepare them for an opposite character. The folly ot 
the nurse, however, makes an intemperate use of these happy 
propensities. She perpetually torments the child to exert 
himself for her amusement ; all his senses and all his muscles 
she commands. He must see, hear, talk, or be silent, move 
or be still, when she thinks proper; and often with the desire 
of amusing her charge, or of showing him off to the company, 
she digustshim with voluntary exertion. Before young chil- 
dren have completely acquired the use of their limbs, they 
cannot perform feats of activity or of dexterity at a moment's 
warning. Their muscles do not instantaneously obey their 
will ; the efforts they make are painful to themselves ; the 
awkwardness of their attempts is painful to others ; the delay 
of the body is often mistaken for the reluctance of the mind ; 
and the impatient tutor pronounces the child to be obstinate, 
whilst all the time he may be doing his utmost to obey. In- 
stead of growing angry with the helpless child, it would be 
surely more wise to assist his feeble and inexperienced efforts. 
If we press him to make unsuccessful attempts, we shall asso- 
ciate pain both with voluntary exertion and with obedience. 

Little W (a boy of three years old) was one day asked 

by his father to jump. The boy stood stock still. Perhaps 
he did not know the meaning of the word jump. The father, 
instead of pressing him further, asked several other children 
who happened to be in the room to jump, and he jumped 
along with them : all this was done playfulty. The little boy 
looked on silently for a short time, and seemed much pleased. 

" Papa jumps !" he exclaimed. His brother L lifted him 

up two or three times ; and he then tried to jump, and suc- 
ceeded : from sympathy he learned the command of the mus- 
cles which were necessary to his jumping, and to his obe- 
dience. If this boy had been importuned, or forced to exert 
himself, he might have been thus taught obstinacy, merely 
from the imprudent impatience of the spectators. The reluc- 
tance to stop when a child is once in motion, is often mistaken 
for obstinacy : when he is running, singing, laughing, or talk- 
ing, if you suddenly command him to stop, he cannot instant- 
ly obey you. If we reflect upon our own minds, we may per- 
ceive that we cannot, without considerable effort, turn our 
thoughts suddenly from any subject on which we have been 
long intent. If we have been long in a carriage, the noise of 
the wheels sounds in our ear, and we seem to be yet going on 
after the carriage has stopped. We do not pretend to found 
any accurate reasoning upon analogy; but we may observe, 
the difficulty with which our minds are stopped or put in mo- 
tion, resembles the vis-inertiae of the body. 



120 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

W (three years old) had for some minutes vociferated 

two or three words of a song, until the noise could be no 
longer patiently endured ; his father called to him, and de- 
sired that he would not make so much noise. — W paused 

for a moment, but then went on singing the same words. 

His brother said, Hush ! W paused for another second 

or two ; but then went on with his roundelay. In his coun- 
tenance there was not the slightest appearance of ill humour. 
One of his sisters put him upon a board which was lying on 
the floor, and which was a little unsteady; as he walked 
cautiously along this board, his attention was occupied, and 
he forgot his song. 

This inability suddenly to desist from any occupation, may 
easily grow into obstinacy, because the pain of checking 
themselves will be great in children, and this pain will be as- 
sociated with the commands of those who govern them ; it is 
better to stop them by presenting new objects to their atten- 
tion, than by the stimulus of a peremptory voice* Children 
should never be accused of obstinacy ; the accusation cannot 
cure, but may superinduce the disease. If, unfortunately, 
they have been suffered to contract a disposition to this fault, 
it may be cured by a little patience and good temper. We 
have mentioned how example and sympathy may be advan- 
tageously used ; praise and looks of affection, which naturally 
express our feeling when children do right, encourage the 
slightest efforts to obey ; but we must carefully avoid show- 
ing any triumph in our victory over yielding stubbornness. 

" Aye, I knew you would do what we desired at last, you 
might as well have done it at first," is a common nursery- 
maid's speech, which is well calculated to pique the pride of 
a half-subdued penitent. When children are made ashamed 
of submission, they will become intrepid, probably uncon- 
querable, rebels. 

Neither rewards nor punishments will then avail ; the pu- 
pil perceives, that both the wit and the strength of his master 
are set in competition with his: at the expense of a certain 
degree of pain, he has the power to resist as long as he thinks 
proper ; and there is scarcely any degree of pain that a tutor 
dares to inflict, which an obstinate hero is not able to endure. 
With the spirit of a martyr, he sustains reproaches and tor- 
ture. If, at length, the master changes his tone, and tries to 
soften and win the child to his purpose, his rewards are con- 
sidered as bribes : if the boy really thinks that he is in the 
right to rebel, he must yield his sense of honour to the force 
of temptation when he obeys. If he has formed no such idea 
of honour, he perhaps considers the reward as the price of 
his submission ; and, upon a future occasion, he will know 
how to raise that price by prolonging his show of resistance. — 



OBEDIENCE. 121 

Where the child has formed a false idea of honour, his obsti- 
nacy is only mistaken resolution; we should address our- 
selves to his understanding, and endeavour to convince him, 
of his error. Where the understanding is convinced, and the 
habit of opposition still continues, we should carefully avoid 
calling his false associations into action ; we should not ask 
him to do any thing for which he has acquired an habitual 
aversion ; we should alter our manner of speaking to him, 
that neither the tones of our voice, the words, or the looks, 
which have been his customary signals for resistance, may 
recal the same feelings to his mind : placed in new circum- 
stances, he may acquire new habits, and his old associates 
will in time be forgotten. Sufficient time must, however, be 
allowed ; we may judge when it is prudent to try him on any 
old dangerous subjects, by many symptoms : by observing 
the degree of alacrity with which he obeys on indifferent oc- 
casions ; by observing what degree of command he has ac- 
quired over himself in general ; by observing in what man- 
ner he judges of the conduct and temper of other children in 
similar circumstances ; by observing whether the conscious- 
ness of his former self continues in full force. Children often 
completely forget what they have been. 

Where obstinacy arises from principle, if we may use th6 
expression, it cannot be cured by the same means which are 
taken to cure that species of the disease which depends mere- 
ly upon habit. The same courage and fortitude which in one 
case we reprobate, and try to conquer with all our might, in 
the other we admire and extol. This should be pointed out 
to children ; and if they act from a love of glory, as soon as 
they perceive it, they will follow that course which will se- 
cure to them the prize. 

Charles XII. whom the Turks, when incensed by his dis- 
obedience to the grand seignior, called Demir-bash or head of 
iron, showed early symptoms of this headstrong nature ; yet 
in his childhood, if his preceptor* named but glory, any thing 
could be obtained from Charles. Charles had a great aver- 
sion to learning Latin ; but when he was told that the kings 
of Poland and Denmark understood it, he began to study it 
in good earnest. We do not mean to infer, that emulation 
with the kings of Poland and Denmark, was the best possible 
motive which Charles the Twelfth's preceptor could have 
used, to make the young prince conquer his aversion to Laiin ; 
but we would point out, that where the love of glory is con- 
nected with obstinate temper, the passion is more than a 



* Voltaire's Hist. Charles XII. page 13. 
16 



122 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 

match for the temper. Let us but enlighten this love of glo- 
ry, and we produce magnanimity in the place of obstinacy. 
Examples, in conversation and in books, of great characters, 
who have not been ashamed to change their opinions, and to 
acknowledge that they have been mistaken, will probably 
make a great impression upon young people ; they will from 
these learn to admire candour, and will be taught, that it is 
mean to persist in the wrong. Examples from books, must, 
however, be also uniformly supported by examples in real 
life ; preceptors and parents must practise the virtues which 
they preach. It is said, that the amiable Fenelon acquired 
the most permanent influence over his pupil, by the candour 
with which he always treated him. Fenelon did not think 
that he could lessen his dignity by confessing himself to be in 
the wrong. 

Young people who have quick abilities, and who happen to 
live with those who are inferior to them either in knowledge 
or in capacity, are apt to become positive and self-willed ; 
they measure all the world by the individuals with whom 
they have measured themselves ; and, as they have been con- 
vinced that they have been in the right in many cases, they 
take it for granted that their judgment must be always infal- 
lible. This disease may be easily cured ; it is only necessa- 
ry to place the patient amongst his superiors in intellect, his 
own experience will work his cure : he liked to follow his 
will, because his judgment had taught him that he might trust 
more securely to the tact of his own understanding, than to 
the decision of others. As soon as he discovers more sense 
in the arguments of his companions, he will listen to them, 
and if he finds their reason superior to his own, he will sub- 
mit. A preceptor, who wishes to gain ascendancy over a 
clever positive boy, must reason with all possible precision, 
and must always show that he is willing to be decided by the 
strongest arguments which can be produced. If he ever pro- 
phesies, he sets his judgment at stake ; therefore he should 
not prophesy about matters of chance, but rather in affairs 
where he can calculate with certainty. If his prophecies are 
frequently accomplished, his pupil's confidence in him will 
rapidly increase ; and if he desires that confidence to be per- 
manent, he will not affect mystery, but he will honesty explain 
the circumstances by which he formed his opinions. Young 
people who are accustomed to hear and to give reasons for 
their opinions, will not be violent and positive in assertions ; 
they will not think that the truth of any assertion can be 
manifested by repeating over the same words a thousand 
times ; they will not ask how many people are of this or that 
opinion, but rather what arguments are produced on each 
side. There is very little danger that any people, whether 



OBEDIENCE. 123 

young or old, should continue to be positive, who are in the 
habit of exercising their reasoning faculty. 

It has been often observed that extremely good humoured, 
complaisant children, when they grow up, become ill tem- 
pered ; and young men who are generally liked in society as 
pleasant companions, become surly, tyrannical masters in 
their own families, positive about mere trifles, and anxious to 
subjugate the wills of all who are any wise dependent upon 
them. This character has been nicely touched by de Boissy, 
in his comedy called " Dehors trompeurs." 

We must observe, that whilst young people are in company, 
and under the immediate influence of the excitements of nov- 
elty, numbers and dissipation, it is scarcely possible to form a 
just estimate of the goodness of their temper. Young men 
who are the most ready to yield their inclinations to the hu- 
mour of their companions, are not therefore to be considered 
as of really compliant dispositions ; the idle or indolent, 
who have no resources in their own minds, and no inde- 
pendent occupations, are victims to the yawning demon of 
ennui the moment they are left in solitude. They conse- 
quently dread so heartily to be left alone, that they readily 
give up a portion of their liberty to purchase the pleasures 
and mental support which society affords. When they give 
up their wishes, and follow the lead of the company, they 
in fact give up but very little ; their object is amusement ; 
and this obtained, their time is sacrificed without regret. 
On the contrary, those who are engaged in literary or pro- 
fessional pursuits, set a great value upon their time, and 
feel considerable reluctance to part with it without some ade- 
quate compensation ; they must consequently be less com- 
plaisant companions, and by the generality of superficial ob- 
servers, would be thought, perhaps, less complying in their 
tempers, than the idle and dissipated. But when the idle 
man has past the common season for dissipation, and is settled 
in domestic life, his spirits flag from the want of his usual ex- 
citements ; and, as he has no amusements in his own family, 
to purchase by the polite sacrifice of his opinion or his will, 
he is not inclined to complaisance. The pleasure of exer- 
cising his free will, becomes important in his eyes ; he has 
few pleasures, and of those few he is tenacious. He has 
been accustomed to submit to others in society; he is 
proud to be master at home ; he has few emotions, and 
the emotion caused by the exertion of command, becomes 
agreeable and necessary to him. Thus many of the same 
causes which make a young man a pleasant companion abroad, 
tend naturally to make him a tyrant at home. This perver- 
sity and positiveness of temper, ultimately arises from the 
want of occupation, and from deficient energy of mind. We 



124 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

may guard against these evils by education : when we see a 
playful, active child, we have little fear of his temper. " Oh, 
he will certainly be good tempered, he is the most obedient, 
complying creature in the world, he'll do any thing you ask 
him." But let us cultivate his understanding, and give him 
tastes which shall occupy and interest him agreeably through 
life, or else this sweet, complying temper will not last till he 
is thirty. 

An ill cured obstinacy of temper, when it breaks out after 
young people have arrived at years of discretion, is terrible. 
Those who attempt to conquer obstinacy in children by bodi- 
ly pain, or by severe punishments of any kind, often appear 
to succeed, and to have entirely eradicated, when they have 
merely suppressed, the disease for a time. As soon as the 
child that is intimidated by force orHfear, is relieved from re- 
straint, he will resume his former habits ; he may change the 
mode of showing it, but the disposition will continue the same. 
It will appear in various parts of the conduct, as the limbs of 
the giant appeared unexpectedly at different periods, and ie 
different parts of the Castle of Otranto. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ON TRUTH. 



It is not necessary here to pronounce a panegyric upon 
truth ; its use and value is thoroughly understood by all the 
world ; but we shall endeavour to give some practical advice, 
which may be of service in educating children, not only to the 
love, but to the habits, of integrity. These are not always 
found, as they ought to be, inseparable. 

Rousseau's eloquence, and Locke's reasoning, have suffi- 
ciently reprobated, and it is to be hoped have exploded, the 
system of lecturing children upon morality ; of giving them 
precepts and general maxims which they do not under- 
stand, and which they cannot apply. We shall not produce 
long quotations from books which are in every body's hands.* 
There is one particular in which Rousseau especially, and 
most other authors who have written upon education, have 
given very dangerous counsel ; they have counselled parents 



" We refer to Locke's Thoughts concerning- Education, and Rousseau's 
Emilius, vol. i. 



TRITTB. 125 

to teach truth by falsehood. The privilege of using contri- 
vance, and ingenious deceptions, has been uniformly reserved 
for preceptors ; and the pupils, by moral delusions, and the 
theatric effect of circumstances treacherously arranged, are 
to be duped, surprised, and cheated, into virtue. The dia- 
logue between the gardener and Emilius about the Maltese 
melon-seed, is an instance of this method of instruction. 
Honest Robert, the gardener, in concert with the tutor, tells 
poor Emilius a series of lies, prepares a garden, " choice Mal- 
tese melon-seed," and " worthless beans," all to cheat the boy 
into just notions of the rights of property, and the nature of 
exchange and barter. 

Part of the artificial course of experience in that excellent 
work on education, Adele and Theodore, is defective upon 
the same principle. There should be no moral delusions ; no 
artificial course of experience ; no plots laid by parents to 
make out the ti^th ; no listening fathers, mothers, or gover- 
nesses; no pretended confidence, or perfidious friends ; in one 
word, no falsehood should be practised : that magic which 
cheats the senses, at the same time confounds the understand- 
ing. The spells of Prospero, the strangeness of the isle, 
perplex and confound the senses and understanding of all who 
are subjected to his magic, till at length, worked by force of 
wonders into credulity, his captives declare that they will be- 
lieve any thing; " that there are men dewlapt like bulls ; and 
what else does want credit," says the Duke Anthonio, " come 
to me, and I'll be sworn 'tis true." 

Children, whose simplicity has been practised upon by the 
fabling morality of their preceptors, begin by feeling some- 
thing like the implicit credulity of Anthonio ; but the arts of 
the preceptors are quickly suspected by their subjects, and 
the charm is for ever reversed. When once a child detects 
you in falsehood, you lose his confidence ; his incredulity will 
then be as extravagant as his former belief was gratuitous. 
It is in vain to expect, by the most eloquent manifestoes, or 
by the most secret leagues offensive and defensive, to conceal 
your real views, sentiments, and actions, from children. 
Their interest keeps their attention continually awake ; not a 
word, not a look, in which they are concerned, escapes 
them ; they see, hear, and combine, with sagacious rapidity ; 
if falsehood be in the wind, detection hunts her to discovery. 

Honesty is the best policy, must be the maxim in educa- 
tion, as well as in all the other affairs of life. We must not 
only be exact in speaking truth to our pupils, but to every 
body else ; to acquaintance, to servants, to friends, to ene- 
mies. It is not here meant to enter any overstrained protest 
against the common phrases and forms of politeness ; the cur- 
rent coin may not be pure ; but when once its alloy has bees 



126 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ascertained, and its value appreciated, there is no fraud, though 
there may be some folly, in continuing to trade upon equal terms 
with our neighbours, with money of high nominal, and scarcely 
any real, value. No fraud is committed by a gentleman's saying 
he is not at home, because no deception is intended ; the words 
are silly, but they mean, and are understood to mean, nothing 
more than that the person in question does not choose to see 
the visiters who knock at his door. " I am, sir, your obedi- 
ent and humble servant," at the end of a letter, does not 
mean that the person who signs the letter is a servant, or hum- 
ble, or obedient, but it simply expresses that he knows how 
to conclude his letter according to the usual form of civility. 
Change this absurd phrase and welcome ; but do not let us, 
in the spirit of Draco, make no distinction between errors and 
crimes. The foibles of fashion or folly, are not to be treated 
with the detestation due to hypocrisy and falsehood; if small 
faults are to incur such grievous punishments, there can, in- 
deed, be none found sufficiently severe for great crimes ; 
great crimes, consequently, for want of adequate punishment, 
will increase, and the little faults, that have met with dispro- 
portionate persecution, will become amiable and innocent in 
the eyes of commiserating human nature. It is not difficult to 
explain to young people the real meaning, or rather the non- 
sense, of a few complimentary phrases ; their integrity will 
not be increased or diminished by either saying, or omitting 
to say, " I am much obliged to you," or " I shall be very 
happy to see you at dinner," &c. We do not mean to include 
in the harmless list of compliments, any expressions which 
are meant to deceive ; the common custom of the country, 
and of the society in which we live, sufficiently regulates the 
style of complimentary language and there are few so ignorant 
of the world as seriously to misunderstand this, or to mistake 
civility for friendship. 

There is a story told of a Chinese mandarin, who paid a 
visit to a friend at Paris, at the time when Paris was the seat 
of politeness. His well-bred host, on the first evening of his 
arrival, gave him a handsome supper, lodged him in the best 
bed-chamber, and when he wished him a good night, amongst 
other civil things, said he hoped the mandarin would, during 
his stay at Paris, consider that house as his own. Early next 
morning, the polite Parisian was awakened by the sound of 
loud hammering in the mandarin's bed-chamber; on entering 
the room, he found the mandarin and some masons hard at 
work, throwing down the walls of the house. " You rascals, 
are you mad ?" exclaimed the Frenchman to the masons. 
" Not at all, my dear friend," said the Chinese man, soberly ; 
" I set the poor fellows to work ; this room is too small for 



TRUTH. - 1 27 

my taste ; you see I have lost no time in availing myself of 
your goodness. Did not you desire me to use this house as if 
it were my own, during my stay at Paris ?" " Assuredly, my 
dear friend, and so 1 hope you will," replied the French gen- 
tleman, " the only misfortune here is, that I did not under- 
stand Chinese, and that 1 had no interpreter." They found 
an interpreter, or a Chinese dictionary, and when the Parisian 
phrase was properly translated, the mandarin, who was an 
honest man, begged his polite host's pardon for having pulled 
down the partition. It was rebuilt ; the mandarin learned 
French, and the two friends continued upon the best terms 
with each other, during the remainder of the visit. 

The Chesterfieldian system of endeavouring to please by 
dissimulation, is obviously distinguishable by any common ca- 
pacity, from the usual forms of civility. There is no hope of 
educating young people to a love of integrity in any family, 
where this practice is adopted. If children observe that 
their parents deceive common acquaintance, by pretending to 
like the company, and to esteem the characters, of those 
whom they really think disagreeable and contemptible, how 
can they learn to respect truth ? How can children believe in 
the praise of their parents, if they detect them in continual 
flattery towards indifferent people ? It may be thought, by 
latitudinarians in politeness, that we are too rigid in expecting 
this strict adherence to truth from people who live in society ; 
it may be said, that in Practical Education, no such Utopian 
ideas of perfection should be suggested. If we thought them 
Utopian, we certainly should not waste our time upon them; 
but we do not here speak theoretically of what may be done, 
we speak of what has been done. Without the affectation of 
using a more sanctified language than other people ; without 
departing from the common forms of society ; without any 
painful, awkward efforts, we believe that parents may, in all 
their conversation in private and in public, set their children 
the uniform example of truth and integrity. 

We do not mean that the example of parents can alone 
produce this effect ; a number of other circumstances must 
be combined. Servants must have no communication with 
children, if you wish to teach them the habit of speaking truth. 
The education, and custom, and situation of servants, are at 
present such, that it is morally impossible to depend upon their 
veracity in their intercourse with children. Servants think it 
good natured to try to excuse and conceal all the little faults of 
children ; to give them secret indulgences, and even positive- 
ly to deny facts, in order to save them from blame or punish- 
ment. Even when they are not fond of the children, their 
example must be dangerous, because servants do not scruple 
to falsify for their own advantage ; if they break any thing, 



128 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

what a multitude of equivocations ! If they neglect any thing, 
what a variety of excuses ! What evasions in actions, or in 
words, do they continually invent! 

It may be said, that as the Spartans taught their children 
to detest drunkenness, by showing them intoxicated Helots, 
we can make falsehood odious and contemptible to our pupils, 
by the daily example of its mean deformity. But if chil- 
dren, before they can perceive the general advantage of in- 
tegrity, and before they can understand the utility of truth, 
see the partial immediate success of falsehood, how can they 
avoid believing in their own experience ? If they see that ser- 
vants escape blame, and screen themselves from punishment, 
by telling falsehoods, they not only learn that falsehood pre- 
serves from pain, but they feel obliged to those who practise 
it for their sakes ; thus it is connected with the feelings of af- 
fection and of gratitude in their hearts, as well as with a sense 
of pleasure and safety. When servants have exacted prom- 
ises from their proteges, those promises cannot be broken 
without treachery ; thus deceit brings on deceit, and the ideas 
of truth and falsehood become confused and contradictory. 
In the chapter upon servants, we have expatiated upon this 
subject, and have endeavoured to point out how all communi- 
cation between children and servants may be most effectually 
prevented. To that chapter, without further repetition, we 
refer. And now that we have adjusted the preliminaries con- 
cerning parents and servants, we may proceed with confi- 
dence. 

When young children first begin to speak, from not having 
a sufficient number of words to express their ideas, or from 
not having annexed precise ideas to the words which they are 
taught to use, they frequently make mistakes, which are at- 
tributed to the desire of deceiving. We should not precipi- 
tately suspect them of falsehood ; it is some time before they 
perfectly understand what we mean by truth. Small devia- 
tions should not be marked with too much rigour ; but when- 
ever a child relates exactly any thing which he has seen, 
heard, or felt, we should listen with attention and pleasure, 
and we should not show the least doubt of his veracity. 
Rousseau is perfectly right in advising, that children should 
never be questioned in any circumstances upon which it can 
be their interest to deceive. We should, at least, treat chil- 
dren with the same degree of wise lenity, which the English 
law extends to all who have arrived at years of discretion. 
No criminal is bound to accuse himself. If any mischief has 
been committed, we should never, when we are uncertain by 
whom it has been done, either directly accuse, or betray inju- 
rious suspicions. We should neither say to the child, " I be? 
lieve you have done this," nor, " I believe you have not done 



TRUTH. 1 2d 

this;" we should say nothing; the mischief is done, we can- 
not repair it : because a glass is broken, we need not spoil a 
child ; we may put glasses out of his reach in future. If it 
should, however, happen, that a child voluntarily comes to us 
with a history of an accident, may no love of goods or 
chattels, of windows, of china, or even of looking-glasses, 
come in competition with our love of truth? An angry word, 
an angry look, may intimidate the child, who has summoned 
all his little courage to make this confession. It is not requi- 
site that parents should pretend to be pleased and gratified 
with the destruction of their furniture, but they may, it is to 
be hoped, without dissimulation, show that they set more val- 
ue upon the integrity of their children, than upon a looking- 
glass, and they will " keep their temper still, though china 
fall." 

H , one day when his father and mother were absent from 

home, broke a looking-glass. As soon as he heard the sound or 
thereturning carriage, he ran and posted himself atthe hall door. 
His father, the moment he got out of the carriage, beheld his 
erect figure, and pale but intrepid countenance. " Father," 
said the boy, " I have broke the best looking-glass in your 
house !" His father assured him, that he would rather all the 
looking-glasses in his house should be broken, than that one of 

his children should attempt to make an excuse. H was most 

agreeably relieved from his anxiety by the kindness of his fa- 
ther's voice and manner, and still more so, perhaps, by per- 
ceiving that he rose in his esteem. When the glass was exam- 
ined, it appeared that the boy had neglected to produce all 
the circumstancess in his own favour. Before he had begun 
to play at ball, he had had the precaution to turn the back of 
the looking glass towards him ; his ball, however accidentally 

struck against the wooden back, and broke the glass. H ■ 

did not make out this favourable state of the case for himself 
at first; he told it simply after the business was settled, seem- 
ing much more interested about the fate of the glass, than ea- 
ger to exculpate himself. 

There is no great danger of teaching children to do mis- 
chief by this indulgence to their accidental misfortunes. 
When they break, or waste any thing, from pure carelessness, 
let them, even when they speak the truth about it, suffer the 
natural consequences of their carelessness ; but at the same 
time praise their integrity, and let them distinctly feel the dif- 
ference between the slight inconvenience to which they ex- 
pose themselves by speaking the truth, and the great disgrace 
to which falsehood would subject them. The pleasure of 
being esteemed, and trusted, is early felt, and the conscious- 
ness of deserving confidence is delightful to children ; but 
their young fortitude and courage should never be exposed to 
17 






3 30 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

severe temptations. It is not sufficient to excite an admiration 
of truth by example, by eloquent praise, or by the just re- 
wards of esteem and affection ; we must take care to form the 
habits at the same time that we inspire the love of this virtue. 
Many children admire truth, and feel all the shame of telling- 
falsehoods, who jet, either from habit, or from fear, continue 
to tell lies. We must observe, that though the taste for 
praise is strong in childhood, yet it is not a match for any of 
the bodily appetites, when they are strongly excited. Those 
children, who are restrained as to the choice, or the quantity, 
of their food, usually think that eating is a matter of vast con- 
sequence, and they are strongly tempted to be dishonest to 
gratify their appetites. Children do not understand the pru- 
dential maxims concerning health, upon which these restraints 
are founded ; and if they can, " by any indirection," obtain 
things which gratify their palate, they will. On the contrary, 
young people who are regularly let to eat and drink as much 
as they please, can have no temptation from hunger and thirst, 
to deceive; if they partake of the usual family meals, and if 
there are no whimsical distinctions between wholesome and 
unwholesome dishes, or epicurean distinctions between rarities 
and plain food, the imagination and the pride of children will 
not be roused about eating. Their pride is piqued, if they 
perceive that they are prohibited from touching what grown 
up people are privileged to eat; their imagination is set to 
work by seeing any extraordinary difference made by judges 
of eating between one species of food and another. In fami- 
lies where a regularly good table is kept, children accustomed 
to the sight and taste of all kinds of food, are seldom delicate, 
capricious, or disposed to exceed ; but in houses where enter- 
tainments are made from time to time with great bustle and 
-anxiety, fine clothes, and company-manners, and company- 
faces, and all that politeness can do to give the appearance of 
festivity, deceive children at least, and make themJmagine 
that there is some extraordinary joy in seeing a grea^ffTTum- 
ber of dishes than usual upon the table. Upon these occa- 
sions, indeed, the pleasure is to them substantial ; they eat 
more, they eat a greater variety, and of things that please them 
better than usual ; the pleasure of eating is associated with un- 
usual cheerfulness, and thus the imagination, and the reality, 
conspire to make them epicures. To these children, the 
temptations to deceive about sweetmeats and dainties are be- 
yond measure great, especially as ill-bred strangers common- 
ly show their affection for them by pressing them to eat what 
they are not allowed to say " if you please" to. Rousseau 
thinks all children are gluttons. All children may be render- 
ed gluttons; but few, who are properly treated with respect 
to food, and who have any literary tastes, can be in danger of 



-? TRUTH. 131 

continuing to be fond of eating. We therefore, without hesi- 
tation, recommend it to parents never to hazard the truth and 
honour of their pupils by prohibitions, which seldom produce 
any of the effects that are expected. 

Children are sometimes injudiciously restrained with regard 
to exercise ; they are required to promise to keep within cer- 
tain boundaries when they are sent out to play ; these promis- 
es are often broken with impunity, and thus the children 
learn habits of successful deceit. Instead of circumscribing 
their play grounds, as they are sometimes called, by narrow 
inconvenient limits, we should allow them as much space as 
we can with convenience, and at all events exact no promises. 
We should absolutely make it impossible for them to go with- 
out detection into any place which we forbid. It requires 
some patience and activity in preceptors to take all the neces- 
sary precautions in issuing orders, but these precautions will 
be more useful in preserving the integrity of their pupils, 
than the most severe punishments that can be devised. We 
are not so unreasonable as to expect, with some theoretic wri- 
ters on education, that tutors and parents should sacrifice the 
whole of their time to the convenience, amusement, and edu- 
cation of their pupils. This would be putting one set of beings 
*' sadly over the head of another :" but if parents would, as 
much as possible, mix their occupations and recreations with 
those of their children, besides many other advantages which 
have been elsewhere pointed out with respect to the improve- 
ment of the understanding, they would secure them from many 
temptations to falsehood. They should be encouraged to talk 
freely of all their amusements to their parents, and to ask them 
for whatever they want to complete their little inventions. In- 
stead of banishing all the freedom of wit and humour by the 
austerity of his presence, a preceptor, with superior talents, 
and all the resources of property in his favour, might easily 
become the arbiter deliciarum of his pupils. 

When young people begin to taste the pleasures of praise, 
and to feel the strong excitations of emulation and ambition, 
their integrity is exposed to a new species of temptation. 
They are tempted, not only by the hope of obtaining " well- 
earned praise," but by the desire to obtain praise without the 
labour of earning it. In large schools, where boys assist each 
other in their literary exercises, and in all private families 
w r here masters are allowed to show off the accomplishments 
of young gentlemen and ladies, there are so many temptations 
to fraudulent exhibitions, that we despair of guarding against 
their consequences. The best possible method is to inspire 
children with a generous contempt for flattery, and to teach 
them to judge impartially of their own merits. If we are ex- 
act in the measure of approbation which we bestow, they will 



132 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

hence form a scale by which they can estimate the sincerity 
of other people. It is said* that the preceptor of the duke of 
Burgundy succeeded so well in inspiring him with disdain for 
unmerited praise, that when the duke was only nine years old, 
he one day called his tutor to account for having concealed 
some of his childish faults ; and when this promising boy, and 
singular prince was asked, " why he disliked one of his cour- 
tiers," he answered, " Because he flatters me." Anecdotes 
like these will make a useful impression upon children. The 
life of Cyrus, in the Cyropasdia ; several passages in Plu- 
tarch's Lives ; and the lively, interesting picture which Sully 
draws of his noble-hearted master's love of truth, will strongly 
command the admiration of young people, if they read them 
at a proper time of life. We must, however, wait for this 
proper time ; for if these things are read too early, they lose 
all their effect. Without any lectures upon the beauty of 
truth, we may, now and then in conversation, when occurrences 
in real life naturally lead to the subject, express with energy 
our esteem for integrity. The approbation which we bestow 
upon those who give proofs of integrity, should be quite in a 
different tone, in a much higher style of praise, than any com- 
mendations for trifling accomplishments; hence children will 
become more ambitious to obtain a reputation for truth, than 
for any other less honourable and less honoured qualification. 

We will venture to give two or three slight instances of the 
unaffected truth and simplicity of mind, which we have seen 
in children educated upon these principles. No good-natured 
reader will suspect, that they are produced from ostentation : 
whenever the children, who are mentioned, see this in print, 
it is ten to one that they will not be surprised at their own 
good deeds. They will be a little surprised, probably, that 
it should have been thought worth while to record things, 
which are only what they see and feel every day. It is this 
character of every-day goodness which we wish to represent ; 
not any fine thoughts, fine sentiments, or fine actions, which 
come out for holiday admiration. We wish that parents, in 
reading any of these little anecdotes, may never exclaim, 
" Oh that's charming, that's surprising for a child /" but we 
wish that they may sometimes smile, and say " That's very 
natural ; I am sure that is perfectly true ; my little boy, or 
my little girl, say and do just such things continually." 

March, 1792. We were at Clifton; the river Avon ran 
close under the windows of our house in Prince's Place, and 
the children used to be much amused with looking at the ves- 



* V. The Life of the Duke of Burgundy in Madame de la Fite's agreeable 
and instructive work for Children " Contes, Draines et Entretiens, &c." 



TRUTH. 133 

sels which came up the river. One night a ship, that was 
sailing by the windows, fired some of her guns ; the children, 
who were looking out of the windows, were asked " why the 
light was seen when the guns were fired, before the noise was 
heard ?" C — — , who at this time was nine years old, an- 
swered, " Because light comes quicker to the eye, than sound 
to the ear." Her father was extremely pleased with this an- 
swer; but just as he was going to kiss her, the little girl said, 

" Father, the reason of my knowing it, was, that L (her 

elder brother) just before had told it to me." 

There is, it is usually found, most temptation for children 
to deceive when they are put in competition with each other, 
when their ambition is excited by the same object; but if the 
transient glory of excelling in quickness, or abilities of any 
sort, be much inferior to the permanent honour which is se- 
cured by integrity, there is, even in competition, no danger of 
unfair play. 

March, 1792. One evening called the children 

round the tea-table, and told them the following story, which 
he had just met with in " The Curiosities of Literature." 

When the queen of Sheba went to visit king Solomon, she 
one day presented herself before his throne with a wreath of 
real flowers in one hand, and a wreath of artificial flowers in 
the other hand ; the artificial flowers were made so exactly 
to resemble nature, that at the distance at which they were 
held from Solomon, it was scarcely possible that his eye could 
distinguish any difference between them and the natural flow- 
ers; nor could he, at the distance at which they were held 
from him, know them asunder by their smell. " Which of 
these two wreaths," demanded the queen of Sheba, " is the 
work of nature ?" Solomon reflected for some minutes ; and 

how did he discover which was real ? S (five years old) 

replied, " Perhaps he went out of the room very softly, and if 
the woman stood near the door, as he went near her, he might 
see better.'''' 

Father. But Solomon was not to move from his place. 

S . Then he might wait till the woman was tired of 

holding them, and then perhaps she might lay them down oa 
the table, and then perhaps he might see better. 

Father. Well, C , what do you say ? 

C . I think he might have looked at the stalks, and 

have seen which looked stiff like wire, and which were bent 
down by the weight of the natural flowers. 

Father. Well,H ? 

H — — . (ten years old.) I think he might send for a great 
pair of bellows, and blow- blow, till the real leaves dropped 
off. 



134 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Father. But would it not have been somewhat uncivil of 
Solomon to blow, blow, with his great pair of bellows, full in 
the queen of Sheba's face ? 

H . (doubting.) Yes, yes. Well, then he might have 

sent for a telescope, or a magnifying glass, and looked through 
it; and then he could have seen which were the real flowers, 
and which were artificial. 

Father. Well, B , and what do you say ? 

B . (eleven years old.) He might have waited till 

the queen moved the flowers, and then, if he listened, he 
might hear the rustling of the artificial ones. 

Father. S , have you any thing more to say ? 

S repeated the same thing that B had said ; his 

attention was dissipated by hearing the other children speak. 

During this pause, whilst S was trying to collect his 

thoughts, Mrs. E whispered to somebody near her, and 

accidentally said the word animals loud enough to be over- 
heard. 

Father. Well, H , you look as if you had something to 

say? 

H . Father, I heard my mother say something, and 

that made me think of the rest. 

Mrs. E shook hands with H , and praised him for 

this instance of integrity, H then said that " he suppo- 
sed Solomon thought of some animal which would feed upon 
flowers, and sent it to the two nosegays ; and then the animal 
would stay upon the real flowers." 

Father. What animal? 

H . A fly. 

Father. Think again. 

H . A bee. 

Father. Yes. 

The story says that Solomon seeing some bees hover about 
the window, ordered the window to be thrown open, and 
watched upon which wreath of flowers the bee settled. 

August 1st, 1796. S (nine years old) when he was 

reading in Ovid the fable of Perseus and Andromeda, said 
that he wondered that Perseus fought with the monster; he 
wondered that Perseus did not turn him into stone at once 

with his Gorgon shield. We believe that S saw that his 

father was pleased with this observation. A few days after- 
wards somebody in the family recollected Mr. E 's having 

said, that when he was a boy he thought Perseus a simpleton 
for not making use of the Gorgon's head to turn the monster 

into stone. We were not sure whether S had heard Mr. 

E say this or not ; Mr. E asked him whether he re- 
collected to have heard any such thing. S answered, 

without hesitation, that he did remember it. 



TRUTH. 135 

When children have formed habits of speaking truth, and 
when we see that these habits are grown quite easy to them, we 
may venture to question them about their thoughts and feelings; 
this must, however, be done with great caution, but without 
the appearance of anxiety or suspicion. Children are alarm- 
ed if they see that you are very anxious and impatient for 
their answer ; they think that they hazard much by their re- 
ply ; they hesitate, and look eagerly in your face, to discover 
by your countenance what they ought to think and feel, and 
what sort of answer you expect. All who are governed by 
any species of fear are disposed to equivocation. Amongst 
the lower class of Irish labourers, and under-tenants, a class 
of people who are much oppressed, you can scarcely meet 
with any man who will give you a direct answer to the most 
indifferent question ; their whole ingenuity, and they have a 
great deal of ingenuity, is upon the qui vive with you the in- 
stant you begin to speak ; they either pretend not to hear, 
that they may gain time to think, whilst you repeat your 
question, or they reply to you with a fresh question, to draw 
out your remote meaning; for they, judging by their own 
habits, always think you have a remote meaning, and they 
never can believe that your words have no intention to en- 
snare. Simplicity puzzles them much more than wit : for in- 
stance, if you were to ask the most direct and harmless ques- 
tion, as, " Did it rain yesterday ?" the first answer would 
probably be, " Is it yesterday you mean ?" " Yes." " Yes- 
terday ! No, please your honour, 1 was not at the bog at all 
yesterday. Wasn't I after setting my potatoes ? Sure I did 
not know your honour wanted me at all yesterday. Upon 
my conscience, there's not a man in the country, let alone all 
Ireland, I'd sooner serve th'an your honour any day in the 
year, and they have belied me that went behind my back to 
tell your honour the contrary. If your honour sent after me, 
sure 1 never got the word, I'll take my affidavit, or I'd been at 
the bog." " My good friend, I don't know what you mean 
about the bog ; I only ask you whether it rained yesterday." 
" Please your honour, I couldn't get a car and horse any way, to 
draw home my little straw, or I'd have had the house thatched 
long ago." " Cannot you give me a plain answer to this plain 
question? Did it rain yesterday?" "Oh sure, I wouldn't go 
to tell your honour a lie about the matter. Sarrah much it 
rained yesterday after twelve o'clock, barring a few showers; 
but in the night there was a great fall of rain any how ; and 
that was the reason prevented my going to Dublin yesterday, 
for fear the mistress's band-box should get wet upon my cars. 
But, please your honour, if your honour's displeased about it, 
I'll not be waiting for a loading; I'll take my car and go to 
Dublin to-morrow for the slates, if that be what your honour 



136 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

means. Oh, sure I would not tell a lie for the entire price of 
the slates ; I know very well it did'nt rain to call rain yester- 
day. But after twelve o'clock, I don't say I noticed one way 
or other." 

In this perverse and ludicrous method of beating about the 
bush, the man would persist till he had fairly exhausted your 
patience ; and all this he would do, partly from cunning, and 
partly from that apprehension of injustice which he has been 
taught to feel by hard experience. The effects of the exam- 
ple of their parents is early and most strikingly visible in the 
children of this class of people in Ireland. The children, 
who are remarkably quick and intelligent, are universally 
addicted to lying. We do not here scruple or .hesitate in the 
choice of our terms, because we are convinced that this un- 
qualified assertion would not shock the feelings of the parties 
concerned. These poor children are not brought up to think 
falsehood a disgrace; they are praised for the ingenuity with 
which they escape from the cross examination of their supe- 
riors ; and their capacities are admired in proportion to the 
acuteness, or, as their parents pronounce it, 'cuteness, of their 
equivocating replies. Sometimes (the garcon*) the little boy 
of the family is despatched by his mother to the landlord's 
neighbouring bog or turf rick, to bring home, in their phraseolo- 
gy, in ours to steal, a few turf; if upon this expedition, the 
little Spartan be detected, he is tolerably certain of being 
whipped by his mother, or some of his friends, upon his re- 
turn home. "Ah, ye little brat! and what made ye tell the 
gentleman when he met ye, ye rogue, that ye were going to 
the rick 1 And what business had ye to go and belie me to his 
honour, ye unnatural piece of goods ! I'll teach ye to make 
mischief through the country! So I will. Have ye got no 
better sense and manners at this time o'day, than to behave, 
when one trusts ye abroad, so like an innocent ?" An inno- 
cent in Ireland, as formerly in England, (witness the Rape 
of the Lock) is synonymous with a fool. " And fools and in- 
nocents shall still believe." 

The associations of pleasure, of pride and gaiety, are so 
strong in the minds of these well educated children, that they 
sometimes expect the very people who suffer by their dishon- 
esty should sympathize in the self-complacency they feel 
from roguery. A gentleman riding near his own house in 
Ireland, saw a cow's head and fore feet appear at the top of a 
ditch, through a gap in the hedge by the road's side, at the 
same time he heard a voice alternately threatening and en- 
couraging the cow ; the gentleman rode up closer to the scene 



Pronounced gossoon. 



TRUTH. 137 

of action, and he saw a boy's head appear behind the 
cow. " My good boy, 1 ' said he, " that's a fine cow. " Oh 
faith, that she is," replied the boy, " and I'm teaching 
her to get her own living, please your honour." The gentle- 
man did not precisely understand the meaning of the expres- 
sion, and had he directly asked for an explanation would 
probably have died in ignorance ; but the boy, proud of his 
cow, encouraged an exhibition of her talents ; she was made 
to jump across the ditch several times, and this adroit- 
ness in breaking through fences, was termed " getting her 
own living." As soon as the cow's education is finished, she 
may be sent loose into the world to provide for herself; turn- 
ed to graze in the poorest pasture, she will be able and will- 
ing to live upon the fat of the land. 

It is curious to observe how regularly the same moral caus- 
es produce the same temper and character. We talk of cli- 
mate, and frequently attribute to climate the different disposi- 
tions of different nations : the climate of Ireland, and that of 
the West Indies, are not precisely similar, yet the following 
description, which Mr. Edwards, in his history of the West 
Indies, gives of the propensity to falsehood amongst the negro 
slaves, might stand word for word for a character of that 
class of the Irish people who, until very lately, actually not 
metaphorically, called themselves slaves. 

" If a negro is asked even an indifferent question by his 
master, he seldom gives an immediate reply ; but affecting 
not to understand what is said, compels a repetition of the 
question, that he may have time to consider, not what is the 
true answer, but what is the most politic one for him to give." 

Mr. Edwards assures us, that many of these unfortunate 
negroes learn cowardice and falsehood after they become 
slaves. When they first come from Africa, many of them 
show " a frank and fearless temper ;"* but all distinction of 
character amongst the native Africans, is soon lost under the 
levelling influence of slavery. Oppression an^l terror neces- 
sarily produce meanness and deceit in all climates, and in all 
ages ; and wherever fear is the governing motive in educa- 
tion, Ave must expect to find in children a propensity to dis- 
simulation, if not confirmed habits of falsehood. Look at the 
true born Briton under the government of a tyrannical peda- 
gogue, and listen to the language of inborn truth ; in the 
whining tone, in the pitiful evasions, in the stubborn false- 
hoods which you hear from the school-boy, can you discover 
any of that innate dignity of soul which is the boasted nation- 



* Edwards's History West Indies, vol. ii. 
1 o 



138 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

al characteristic ? Look again ; look at the same boy in the 
company of those who inspire no terror ; in the company of his 
school-fellows, of his friends, of his parents ; would you know 
him to be the same being ? his countenance is open ; his attitude 
erect ; his voice firm ; his language free and fluent ; his thoughts 
are upon his lips ; he speaks truth without effort, without 
fear. Where individuals are oppressed, or where they be- 
lieve that they are oppressed, they combine against their op- 
pressors, and oppose cunning and falsehood to power and 
force ; they think themselves released from the compact of 
truth with their masters, and bind themselves in a strict league 
with each other ; thus school-boys hold no faith with their 
schoolmaster, though they would think it shameful to be dis- 
honourable amongst one another. We do not think that these 
maxims are the peculiar growth of schools ; in private fami- 
lies the same feelings are to be found under the same species 
of culture : if preceptors or parents are unjust or tyrannical, 
their pupils will contrive to conceal from them their actions 
and their thoughts. On the contrary, in families where sin- 
cerity has been encouraged by the voice of praise and affec- 
tion, a generous freedom of conversation and countenance ap- 
pears, and the young people talk to each other, and to their 
parents, without distinction or reserve ; without any distinc- 
tion but such as superior esteem and respect dictate. These 
are feelings totally distinct from servile fear : these feelings 
inspire the love of truth, the ambition to acquire and to pre- 
serve character. 

The value of a character for truth, should be distinctly felt 
by children in their own family: whilst they were very 
young, we advised that their integrity should not be tempted ; 
as they grow up, trust should by degrees be put in them, and 
we should distinctly explain to them, that our confidence is 
to be deserved before it can be given. Our belief in any 
person's truth, is not a matter of affection, but of experience 
and necessity ; we cannot doubt the assertions of any person 
whom we have found to speak uniformly the truth ; we can- 
not believe any person, let us w T ish to do it ever so much, if 
we have detected him in falsehoods. Before we have had 
experience of a person's integrity, we may hope, or take it for 
granted, that he is perfectly sincere and honest ; but we can- 
not feel more than belief upon trust, until we have actually 
seen his integrity tried. We should not pretend that we have 
faith in our pupils before we have tried them ; we may hope 
from their habits, from the examples they have seen, and 
from the advantageous manner in which truth has always 
been represented to them, that they will act honourably ; this 
hope is natural and just, but confidence is another feeling of 
the mind. The first time we trust a child, we should not say. 



TRUTH. 13£ 

" I am sure you will not deceive me ; I can trust jou with any 
thing in the world." This is flattery or folly; it is paying 
before-hand, which is not the way to get business done ; why 
cannot we, especially as we are teaching truth, say the thing 
that is — " I hope you will not deceive me. If I find that you 
may be trusted, you know I shall be able to trust you another 
time : this must depend upon you, not entirely upon me." 
We must make ourselves certain upon these occasions, how 
the child conducts himself; nor is it necessary to use any ar- 
tifice, or to affect, from false delicacy, any security that we 
do not feel ; it is better openly to say, " You see, I do you 
the justice to examine carefully, how you have conducted 
yourself; I wish to be able to trust you another time." 

It may be said, that this method of strict inquiry reduces 
a trust to no trust at all, and that it betrays suspicion. If 
you examine evidently with the belief that a child has de- 
ceived you, certainly you betray injurious suspicion, and you. 
educate the child very ill ; but if you feel and express a 
strong desire to find that your pupil has conducted himself 
honourably, he will be glad and proud of the strictest scruti- 
ny ; he will feel that he has earned your future confidence, 
and this confidence, which he clearly knows how he has ob- 
tained, will be more valuable to him than all the belief upon 
trust which you could affect to feel. By degrees, after your 
pupil has taught you to depend upon him, your confidence 
will prevent the necessity of any examination into his con-' 
duct. This is the just and delightful reward of integrity : 
children know how to feel and understand it thoroughly : be- 
sides the many restraints from which our confidence will nat- 
urally relieve them, they feel the pride for being trusted ; the 
honour of having a character for integrity : nor can it be too 
strongly impressed upon their minds, that this character must 
be preserved, as it was obtained, by their own conduct. If 
one link in the chain of confidence be broken, the whole is 
destroyed. Indeed, where habits of truth are early formed, 
we may safely depend upon them. A young person, who 
has never deceived, would see, that the first step in falsehood 
costs too much to be hazarded. Let this appear in the form 
of calculation, rather than of sentiment. To habit, to enthu- 
siasm, we owe much of all our virtues — to reason more ; and 
the more of them we owe to reason, the better. Habit and 
enthusiasm are subject to sudden or gradual changes — but 
reason continues for ever the same. As the understanding 
unfolds, we should fortify all our pupil's habits and virtuous 
enthusiasm, by the conviction of their utility, of their being 
essential to the happiness of society in general, and conducive 
immediately to the happiness of every individual. Possessed 
of this conviction, and provided with substantial arguments in 



140 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

its support, young people will not be exposed to danger, either 
from sophistry or ridicule. 

Ridicule certainly is not the test of truth ; but it is a test 
which truth sometimes finds it difficult to stand. Vice never 
" bolts her arguments" with more success, than when she as- 
sumes the air of raillery, and the tone of gaiety. All viva- 
cious young people are fond of wit ; we do not mean children, 
for they do not understand it. Those who have the best ca- 
pacities, and the strictest habits of veracity, often appear to 
common observers absolutely stupid, from their aversion to any 
play upon words, and from the literal simplicity with which 
they believe every thing that is asserted A remarkably in- 
telligent little girl of four years old, but who had never in her 
own family been used to the common phrases W'hich some- 
times pass for humour, happened to hear a gentleman say, as 
he looked out of the window one rainy morning, " It rains 
cats and dogs to-day." The child, with a surprised but be- 
lieving look, immediately went to look out of the window to 
see the phenomenon. This extreme simplicity in childhood, 
is sometimes succeeded in youth by a strong taste for wit and 
humour. Young people are, in the first place, proud to show 
that they understand them ; and they are gratified by the 
perception of a new intellectual pleasure. At this period of 
their education, great attention must be paid to them, lest 
their admiration for wit and frolic should diminish their rev- 
erence and their love for sober truth. In many engaging- 
characters in society, and in many entertaining books, deceit 
and dishonesty are associated with superior abilities, with 
ease and gaiety of manners, and with a certain air of frank 
carelessness, which can scarcely fail to please. Gil Bias,* 
Tom Jones, Lovelace, Count Fathom, are all of this class of 
characters. They should not be introduced to our pupils till 
their habits of integrity are thoroughly formed ; and till they 
are sufficiently skilful in analysing their own feelings, to dis- 
tinguish whence their approbation and pleasure in reading of 
these characters arise. In books, we do not actually suffer 
by the tricks of rogues, or by the lies they tell. Hence their 
truth is to us a quality of no value ; but their wit, humour, 
and the ingenuity of their contrivances, are of great value to 
us, because they afford us entertainment. The most honest 
man in the universe may not have had half so many adven- 
tures as the greatest rogue in a romance ; the history upon 
oath of all the honest man's bargains and sales, law-suits and 
losses ; nay, even a complete view of his ledger and day- 
book, together with the regular balancings of his accounts, 



See Mrs. Macauley's Letters on Education. 



TRUTH. 141 

would probably not afford quite so much entertainment, even 
to a reader of the most unblemished integrity and phlegmatic 
temper, as the adventures of Gil Bias, and Jonathan Wild, 
adorned with all the wit of Le Sage, and humour of Fielding. 
When Gil Bias lays open his whole heart to us, and tells us 
all his sins, unwhipt of justice, we give him credit for making 
us his confidant, and we forget that this sincerity, and these 
liberal confessions, are not characteristic of the hero's dispo- 
sition, but essential only to the novel. The novel writer 
could not tell us all he had to say without this dying confes- 
sion, and inconsistent openness, from his accomplished villain. 
The reader is ready enough to forgive, having never been 
duped. When young people can make all these reflections 
for themselves, they may read Gil Bias with as much safety 
as the Life of Franklin, or any other the most moral perform- 
ance. " Tout est sain aux sains,"* as Madame de Sevigne 
very judiciously observes, in one of her letters upon the 
choice of books for her grand-daughter. We refer for more 
detailed observations upon this subject to the chapter upon 
Books. But we cannot help here reiterating our advice to 
preceptors, not to force the detestable characters, which are 
sometimes held up to admiration in ancient and modern histo- 
ry, upon the common sense, or if they please, the moral feel- 
ings, of their pupils. The bad actions of great characters, 
should not be palliated by eloquence, and fraud and villainy 
should never be explained away by the hero's or warrior's 
code ; a code which confounds all just ideas of right and 
wrong. Boys, in reading the classics, must read of a variety 
of crimes ; but that is no reason that they should approve of 
them, or that their tutors should undertake to vindicate the 
cause of falsehood and treachery. A gentleman, who has 
taught his sons Latin, has uniformly pursued the practice of 
abandoning to the just and prompt indignation of his young 
pupils all the ancient heroes who are deficient in moral hones- 
ty : his sons, in reading Cornelius Nepos, could not absolute- 
ly comprehend, that the treachery of Themistocles or of Al- 
cibiades could be applauded by a wise and polished nation. 
Xenophon has made an eloquent attempt to explain the na- 
ture of military good faith. Cambyses tells his son, that, in 
taking advantage of an enemy, he must be " crafty, deceitful, 
a dissembler, a thief, and a robber." Oh Jupiter ! exclaims 
the young Cyrus, what a man, my father, you say I must be ! 
And he very sensibly asks his father, why, if it be necessary 
in some cases to ensnare and deceive men, he had not in his 
childhood been taught by his preceptors the art of doing harm 



Every thing- is healthful to the healthy. 



142 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

to his fellow-creatures, as well as of doing them good. " And 
why," says Cyrus, " have I always been punished whenever 
I have been discovered in practising deceit ?" The answers 
of Cambyses are by no means satisfactory upon this subject ; 
nor do we think that the conversation between the old general 
and Mr. Williams,* could have made the matter perfectly in- 
telligible to the young gentleman, whose scrupulous integrity 
made him object to the military profession. 

It is certain, that many persons of strict honour and hon- 
esty in some points, on others are utterly inconsistent in their 
principles. Thus it is said, that private integrity and public 
corruption frequently meet in the same character : thus some 
gentlemen are jockies, and they have a convenient latitude of 
conscience as jockies, whilst they would not for the universe 
cheat a man of a guinea in any way but in the sale of a 
horse : others in gambling, others in love, others in war, think 
all stratagems fair. We endeavour to think that these are all 
honourable men ; but we hope, that we are not obliged to lay 
down rules for the formation of such moral prodigies in a sys- 
tem of practical education. 

We are aware, that with children! who are educated at 
public schools, truth and integrity cannot be taught precisely 
in the same manner as in private families; because ushers 
and schoolmasters cannot pay the same hourly attention to 
each of their pupils, nor have they the command of all the 
necessary circumstances. There are, however, some advan- 
tages attending the early commerce which numbers of chil- 
dren at public seminaries have with each other; they find 
that no society can subsist without truth ; they feel the utility 
of this virtue, and, however they may deal with their masters, 
they learn to speak truth towards each other. — This partial 
species of honesty, or rather of honour, is not the very best 
of its kind, but it may easily be improved into a more rational 
principle of action. It is illiberal to assert, that any virtue is 
to be taught only by one process of education : many differ- 
ent methods of education may produce the same effects. 
Men of integrity and honour have been formed both by pri- 
vate and public education ; neither system should be exclu- 
sively supported by those who really wish well to the im- 
provement of mankind. All the errors of each system should 
be impartially pointed out, and such remedies as may most 
easily be adopted with any hope of success, should be propo- 
sed. We think, that if parents paid sufficient attention to the 
habits of their children, from the age of three to seven years 



* See Mr. Williams's Lectures on Education, where Xeuophon is quoted, 
page 16, &c. vol. ii. — also, page 31. 
f Vide Williams. 



TRUTH. 143 

old, they would be properly prepared for public education ; 
they would not then bring with them to public schools all that 
they have learned of vice and falsehood in the company of 
servants.* We have purposely repeated all this, in hopes of 
impressing it strongly. May we suggest to the masters of 
these important seminaries, that Greek and Latin, and all the 
elegance of classical literature, are matters but of secondary 
consequence, compared with those habits of truth, which are 
essential to the character and happiness of their pupils ? By 
rewarding the moral virtues more highly than the mere dis- 
play of talents, a generous emulation to excel in these virtues 
may with certainty be excited. 

Many preceptors and parents will readily agree, that Bacon, 
in his " general distribution of human knowledge," was per- 
fectly right not to omit that branch of philosophy, which his 
lordship terms " The doctrine of rising in the world." To this 
art, integrity at length becomes necessary ; for talents, wheth- 
er for business or for oratory, are now become so cheap, that 
they cannot alone ensure pre-eminence to their possessors. 
The public opinion, which in England bestows celebrity, and 
necessarily leads to honour, is intimately connected with the 
public confidence. Public confidence is not the same thing 
as popularity ; the one may be won, the other must be earn- 
ed. There is amongst all parties, who at present aim at polit- 
ical power, an unsatisfied demand for honest men. Those 
who speculate in this line for their children, will do wisely to 
keep this fact in their remembrance during their whole ed- 
ucation. 

We have delayed, from a full consciousness of the difficul- 
ty of the undertaking, to speak of the method of curing either 
the habits or the propensity to falsehood. Physicians, for 
mental as well as bodily diseases, can give long histories of 
maladies ; but are surprisingly concise when they come 
to treat of the method of cure. With patients of different 
ages, and different temperaments, to speak with due medical 
solemnity, we should advise different remedies. With young 
children, we should be most anxious to break the habits ; 
with children at a more advanced period of their education, 
we should be most careful to rectify the principles. Children, 
before they reason, act merely from habit, and without hav- 
ing acquired command over themselves, they have no power 
to break their own habits; but when young people reflect 
and deliberate, their principles are of much more importance 
than their habits, because their principles, in fact, in most ca- 
ses, govern their habits. It is in consequence of their delib- 



* V. Servants and " Public and Private Education." 



144 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

erations and reflections that they act; and, before we can 
change their way of acting, we must change their way of 
thinking. 

To break habits of falsehood in young children, let us be- 
gin by removing the temptation, whatever it may be. For 
instance, if the child has the habit of denying that he has 
seen, heard, or done things which he has seen, heard, and 
done, we must not, upon any account, ever question him about 
any of these particulars, but we should forbear to give him 
any pleasure which he might hope to obtain by our faith in 
his assertions. Without entering into any explanations, we 
should absolutely* disregard what he says, and with looks of 
cool contempt, turn away without listening to his falsities. A 
total change of occupations, new objects especially such as 
excite and employ the senses, will be found highly advanta- 
geous. Sudden pleasure, from strong expressions of affec- 
tion, or eloquent praise, whenever the child speaks truth, will 
operate powerfully in breaking his habits of equivocation. 
We do not advise parents to try sudden pain with children at 
this early age, neither do we advise bodily correction, or 
lasting penitences, meant to excite shame, because these depress 
and enfeeble the mind, and a propensity to falsehood ulti- 
mately arises from weakness and timidity. Strengthen the 
body and mind by all means ; try to give the pupils command 
over themselves upon occasions where they have no opportu- 
nities of deceiving: the same command of mind and courage, 
proceeding from the consciousness of strength and fortitude, 
may, when once acquired, be exerted in any manner we di- 
rect. A boy who tells a falsehood to avoid some trifling pain 
or to procure some trifling gratification, would perhaps dare 
to speak the truth, if he were certain that he could bear the 
pain, or do without the gratification. Without talking to him 
about truth or falsehood, we should begin by exercising him 
in the art of bearing and forbearing. The slightest trials 
are best for beginners, such as their fortitude can bear, for 
success is necessary to increase their courage. 

Madame de Genlis, in her Adele and Theodore, gives The- 
odore, when he is about seven years old, a box of sugar- 
plumbs to take care of, to teach him to command his passions. 
Theodore produces the untouched treasure to his mother, 
from time to time, with great self-complacency. We think 
this a good practical lesson. Some years ago the experiment 
was tried, with complete success, upon a little boy between 
five and six years old. This boy kept raisins and almonds in 
a little box in his pocket, day after day, without ever thinking 



Rousseau and Williams. 



TRUTH. 145 

of touching them. His only difficulty was to remember at 
the appointed time, at the week's end, to produce them. The 
raisins were regularly counted from time to time, and were, 
when found to be right, sometimes given to the child, but not 
always. When, for several weeks, the boy had faithfully ex- 
ecuted his trust, the time was extended for which he was to 
keep the raisins, and every body in the family expressed that 
they were now certain, before they counted the raisins, that 
they should find the number exact. This confidence, which 
was not pretended confidence, pleased the child, but the rest 
he considered as a matter of course. We think such little 
trials as these might be made with children of five or six 
years old, to give them habits of exactness. The boy we 
have just mentioned, has grown up with a more unblemished 
reputation for truth, than any child with whom we were ever 
acquainted. This is the same boy who broke the looking- 
glass. 

When a patient, far advanced in his childhood, is yet to be 
cured of a propensity to deceive, the business becomes for- 
midable. It is dangerous to set our vigilance in direct oppo- 
sition to his cunning, and it is yet more dangerous to trust and 
give him opportunities of fresh deceit. If the pupil's temper 
is timid, fear has probably been his chief inducement to dis- 
simulation. If his temper is sanguine, hope and success, and 
perhaps the pleasure of inventing schemes, or of outwitting 
his superiors, have been his motives. In one case we should 
prove to the patient, that he has nothing to fear from speak- 
ing the truth to us ; in the other case we should demonstrate 
to him, that he has nothing to hope from telling us falsehoods. 
Those who are pleased with the ingenuity of cunning, should 
have opportunities of showing their ingenuity in honourable 
employments, and the highest praise should be given to their 
successful abilities whenever they are thus exerted. They 
will compare their feelings when they are the objects of es- 
teem, and of contempt, and they will be led permanently to 
pursue what most tends to their happiness. We should never 
deprive them of the hope of establishing a character for in- 
tegrity ; on the contrary, we should explain distinctly to them, 
that this is absolutely in their own power. Examples from 
real life will strike the mind of a young person just entering 
into the world, much more than any fictitious characters, or 
moral stories ; and strong indignation, expressed incidentally, 
will have more effect than any lectures prepared for the pur- 
pose. We do not mean, that any artifice should be used to 
make our lessons impressive; but there is no artifice in seizing 
opportunities, which must occur in real life, to exemplify the 
advantages of a good character. The opinions which young 
19 



146 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

people hear expressed of actions in which they have no share, 
and of characters with whom they are not connected, make 
a great impression upon them. The horror which is shown 
to falsehood, the shame which overwhelms the culprit, they 
have then leisure to contemplate ; they see the effects of the 
storm at a distance ; they dread to be exposed to its violence, 
and they will prepare for their own security. When any such 
strong impression has been made upon the mind, we should 
seize that moment to connect new principles with new habits 
of action : we should try the pupil in some situation in which 
he has never been tried before, and where he consequently 
may feel hope of obtaining reputation, if he deserves it, by 
integrity. All reproaches upon his former conduct should 
now be forborne, and he should be allowed to feel, in full se- 
curity, the pleasures and the honours of his new character. 

We cannot better conclude a chapter upon Truth, than by 
honestly referring the reader to a charming piece of eloquence, 
with which Mr. Godwin concludes his essay upon Deception 
and Frankness.* We are sensible how much we shall lose 
by the comparison : we had written this chapter before we- 
saw his essay. 



CHAPTER IX. 

OX REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 

To avoid, in education, all unnecessary severity, and all 
dangerous indulgence, we must form just ideas of the nature 
and use of rewards and punishments. Let us begin with con- 
sidering the nature of punishment, since it is best to get the 
most disagreeable part of our business done the first. 

Several benevolent and enlightened authors! have endeav- 
oured to explain the use of penal laws, and to correct the 
ideas which formerly prevailed concerning public justice. 
Punishment is no longer considered, except by the ignorant 
and sanguinary, as vengeance from the injured, or expiation 
from the guilty. We now distinctly understand, that the 
greatest possible happiness of the whole society must be the 
ultimate object of all just legislation ; that the partial evil of 
punishment is consequently to be tolerated by the wise and 
humane legislator, only so far as it is proved to be necessary 



* V. The Enquirer, p. 101. 

t Beccaria, Voltaire, Blackstone, Sic. 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 147 

for the general good. When a crime has been committed, it 
cannot be undone by all the art, or all the power of man ; by- 
vengeance the most sanguinary, or remorse the most painful. 

The past is irrevocable ; all that remains, is to provide for 
the future. It would be absurd, after an offence has already 
been committed, to increase the sum of misery in the world, 
by inflicting pain upon the offender, unless that pain were af- 
terwards to be productive of happiness to society, either by 
preventing the criminal from repeating his offence, or by de- 
terring others from similar enormities. With this double view 
of restraining individuals,by the recollection of past sufferings, 
from future crimes, and of teaching others, by public examples, 
to expect, and to fear, certain evils as the necessary conse- 
quences of certain actions hurtful to society, all wise laws are 
framed, and all just punishments are inflicted. It is only by 
the conviction that certain punishments are essential to the 
general security and happiness, that a person of humanity 
can, or ought, to fortify his mind against the natural feelings 
of compassion. These feelings are the most painful, and the 
most difficult to resist, when, as it sometimes unavoidably hap- 
pens, public justice requires the total sacrifice of the happi- 
ness, liberty, or perhaps the life, of a fellow-creature, whose 
ignorance precluded him from virtue, and whose neglected or 
depraved education prepared him by inevitable degrees, for 
vice and all its miseries. How exquisitely painful must be 
the feelings of a humane judge, in pronouncing sentence upon 
such a devoted being ! But the law permits of no refined 
metaphysical disquisitions. It would be vain to plead the 
necessitarian's doctrine of an unavoidable connexion between 
the past and the future, in all human actions ; the same neces- 
sity compels the punishment that compels the crime ; nor 
could, nor ought, the most eloquent advocate, in a court of 
justice, to obtain a criminal's acquittal by entering into a mi- 
nute history of the errors of his education. 

It is the business of education to prevent crimes, and to 
prevent all those habitual propensities which necessarily lead 
to their commission. The legislator can consider only the 
large interests of society ; the preceptor's view is fixed upon 
the individual interests of his pupil. Fortunately both must 
ultimately agree. To secure for his pupil the greatest possi- 
ble quantity of happiness, taking in the whole of life, must be 
the wish of the preceptor : this includes every thing. We 
immediately perceive the connexion between that happiness, 
and obedience to all the laws on which the prosperity of so- 
ciety depends. — We yet further perceive, that the probability 
of our pupil's yielding not only an implicit, but an habitual, 
rational, voluntary, happy obedience, to such laws, must arise 
from the connexion which he, believes, and feels, that there 



148 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

exists between his social duties and his social happiness. 
How to induce this important belief, is the question. 

It is obvious, that we cannot explain to the comprehension 
of a child of three or four years old, all the truths of morali- 
ty ; nor can we demonstrate to him the justice of punish- 
mentSj by showing him that we give present pain to ensure 
future advantage. But, though we cannot demonstrate to the 
child that we are just, we may satisfy ourselves upon this 
subject, and we may conduct ourselves, during his non-age of 
understanding, with the scrupulous integrity of a guardian. 
Before we can govern by reason, we can, by associating pain 
or pleasure with certain actions, give habits, and these habits 
will be either beneficial or hurtful to the pupil : we must, if 
they be hurtful habits, conquer them by fresh punishments, 
and thus we make the helpless child suffer for our negligence 
and mistakes. Formerly in Scotland there existed a law, 
which obliged every farrier who, through ignorance, or drunk- 
enness, pricked a horse's foot in shoeing him, to deposit the 
price of the horse until he was sound, to furnish the owner 
with another, and in case the horse could not be cured, the 
farrier was doomed to indemnify the injured owner. At the 
same rate of punishment, what indemnification should be de- 
manded from a careless or ignorant preceptor? 

When a young child puts his finger too near the fire, he 
burns himself; the pain immediately follows the action ; they 
are associated together in the child's memory ; if he repeat 
the experiment often, and constantly with the same result, the 
association will be so strongly formed, that the child will ever 
afterwards expect these two things to happen together: 
whenever he puts his finger into fire, he will expect to 
feel pain ; he will learn yet further, as these things regularly 
follow one another, to think one the cause, and the other the 
effect. He may not have words to express these ideas ; nor 
can we explain how the belief that events, which have hap- 
pened together, will again happen together, is by experience 
induced in the mind. This is a fact, which no metaphysicians 
pretend to dispute ; but it has not yet, that we know of, been 
accounted for by any. It would be rash to assert, that it 
will not in future be explained, but at present we are totally 
in the dark upon the subject. It is sufficient for our purpose 
to observe, that this association of facts, or of ideas, affects 
the actions of all rational beings, and of many animals who 
are called irrational. Would you teach a dog or a horse to 
obey you ; do you not associate pleasure, or pain, with the 
things you wish that they should practise, or avoid ? The im- 
patient and ignorant give infinitely more pain than is necessa- 
ry to the animals they educate. If the pain, which we would 
associate with any action, do not immediately follow it, the 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 149 

child does not understand us ; if several events happen nearly 
at the same time, it is impossible that a child can at first dis- 
tinguish which are causes and which are effects. Suppose, 
that a mother would teach her little son, that he must not put 
his dirly shoes upon her clean sofa: if she frowns upon him, 
or speaks to him in an angry tone, at the instant that he sets 
his foot and shoe upon the sofa, he desists ; but he has only 
learned, that putting a foot upon the sofa, and his mother's 
frown, follow each other ; his mother's frown, from former as- 
sociations, gives him perhaps, some pain, or the expectation of 
some pain, and consequently he avoids repeating the action 
which immediately preceded the frown. If, a short time after- 
wards, the litde boy, forgetting the frown, accidentally gets up- 
on the sofa 7vithout his shoes, no evil follows ; but it is not proba- 
ble, that he can, by this single experiment, discover that his 
shoes have made all the difference in the two cases. Children 
are frequently so much puzzled by their confused experience 
of impunity and punishment, that they are quite at a loss how to 
conduct themselves. Whenever our punishments are not made 
intelligible, they are cruel ; they give pain, without producing 
any future advantage. To make punishment intelligible to chil- 
dren, it must be not only immediately, but repeatedly and uniform- 
ly, associated with the actions which we wish them to avoid. 

When children begin to reason, punishment affects them in 
a different manner from what it did whilst they were govern- 
ed, like irrational animals, merely by the direct associations 
of pleasure and pain. They distinguish, in many instances, 
between coincidence and causation ; they discover, that the 
will of others is the immediate cause, frequently, of the pain 
they suffer ; they learn by experience that the will is not an 
unchangeable cause, that it is influenced by circumstances, 
by passions, by persuasion, by caprice. It must be, however, 
by slow degrees, that they acquire any ideas of justice. 
They cannot know our views relative to their future happi- 
ness ; their first ideas of the justice of the punishments we in- 
flict, cannot, therefore, be accurate. They regulate these 
first judgments by the simple idea, that our punishments ought 
to be exactly the same always in the same circumstances ; 
when they understand words, they learn to expect that our 
words and actions should precisely agree, that we should 
keep our promises, and fulfil our threats. They next learn, 
that as they are punished for voluntary faults, they cannot 
justly be punished until it has been distinctly explained to 
them what is wrong or forbidden, and what is right or permit" 
ted. The words right or wrong, and permitted or forbidden, 
are synonymous at first in the apprehensions of children ; and 
obedience and disobedience are their only ideas of virtue and 
vice. Whatever we command to be done, or rather whatever 



150 PKACTlCAIi EDUCATION. 

we associate with pleasure, they imagine to be right; what- 
ever we prohibit, provided we have uniformly associated it 
with pain, they believe to be wrong. This implicit submis- 
sion to our authority, and these confined ideas of right and 
wrong, are convenient, or apparently convenient, to indolent 
or tyrannical governours ; and they sometimes endeavour to 
prolong the reign of ignorance, with the hope of establishing 
in the mind an opinion of their own infallibility. But this is 
a dangerous, as well as an unjust, system. By comparison 
with the conduct and opinions of others, children learn to 
judge of their parents and preceptors; by reading and by 
conversation, they acquire more enlarged notions of right and 
"wrong; and their obedience, unless it then arise from the 
conviction of their understandings, depends but on a very pre- 
carious foundation. The mere association of pleasure and 
pain, in the form of reward and punishment, with any given 
action, will not govern them; they will now examine whether 
there is any moral or physical necessary connexion between the 
action and punishment; nor will they believe the punishment 
they suffer to be a consequence of the action they have com- 
mitted, but rather a consequence of their being obliged to 
submit to the will of those who are stronger or more powerful 
than they are themselves. Unjust punishments do not effect 
their intended purpose, because the pain is not associated with 
the action which we would prohibit ; but, on the contrary, it 
is associated with the idea of our tyranny ; it consequently 
excites the sentiment of hatred towards us, instead of aver- 
sion to the forbidden action. When once, by reasoning, chil- 
dren acquire even a vague idea that those who educate them 
are unjust, it is in vain either to punish or reward them ; if 
they submit, or if they rebel, their education is equally spoil- 
ed ; in the one case they become cowardly, in the other, 
headstrong. To avoid these evils, there is but one method ; 
we must early secure reason for our friend, else she will be- 
come our unconquerable enemy. As soon as children are 
able, in any instance, to understand the meaning and nature 
of punishment, it should, in that instance be explained to 
them. Just punishment is pain, inflicted with the reasonable 
hope of preventing greater pain in future. In a family, where 
there are several children educated together, or in public 
schools, punishments may be inflicted with justice for the sake 
of example, but still the reformation and future good of the 
sufferer is always a principal object; and of this he should be 
made sensible. If our practice upon all occasions correspond 
with our theory, and if children really perceive, that we do 
not punish them to gratify our own spleen or passion, we shall 
not become, even when we give them pain, objects of their 
hatred. The pain will not be associated with us, but, as it 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 151 

ought to be, with the fault which was the real cause of it. 
As much as possible we should let children feel the natural 
consequences of their own conduct. The natural conse- 
quence of speaking truth, is the being believed ; the natural 
consequence of falsehood, is the loss of trust and confidence j. 
the natural consequence of all the useful virtues, is esteem; 
of all the amiable virtues, love ; of each of the prudential vir- 
tues, some peculiar advantage to their possessor. But plum- 
pudding is not the appropriate reward of truth, nor is the loss 
of it the natural or necessary consequence of falsehood. 
Prudence is not to be rewarded with the affection due to hu- 
manity, nor is humanity to be recompensed with the esteem 
claimed by prudence. Let each good and bad quality have 
its proper share of praise and blame, and let the consequences 
of each follow as constantly as possible. That young people 
may form a steady judgment of the danger of any vice, they 
must uniformly perceive, that certain painful consequences 
result from its practice. It is in vain that we inflict punish- 
ments, unless all the precepts and all the examples which 
they see, confirm them in the same belief. 

In the unfortunate son of Peter the Great, we have a strik- 
ing instance of the effects of a disagreement between precept 
and example,* which, in a less elevated situation, might have 
escaped our notice. It seems as if the different parts and sta- 
ges of his education had been purposely contrived to coun- 
teract each other. Till he was eleven years old, he was com- 
mitted to the care of women, and of ignorant bigotted priests, 
who were continually inveighing against his father for the ab- 
olition of certain barbarous customs. Then came baron Huy- 
sen for his governour, a sensible man, who had just begun to 
make something of his pupil, when Prince Menzikof insisted 
upon having the sole management of the unfortunate Alexey. 
Prince Menzikof abandoned him to the company of the low- 
est wretches, who encouraged him in continual ebriety, and in 
a taste for every thing mean and profligate. At length came 
Euphrosyne, his Finlandish mistress, who, upon his trial for 
rebellion, deposed to every angry expression which, in his 
most unguarded moments, the wretched son had uttered 
against the tyrannical father. Amidst such scenes of contra- 
dictory experience, can we be surprised, that Alexey Petro- 
vitch became feeble, ignorant, and profligate; that he rebelled 
against the father whom he had early been taught to fear and 
hate ; that he listened to the pernicious counsels of the com- 
panions who had, by pretended sympathy and flattery, ob- 
tained that place in his confidence which no parental kindness 



See Cox's Travels, vol. ii. 13P. 



15S PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

had ever secured ? Those historians who are zealous for the 
glory of Peter the Great, have eagerly refuted, as a most 
atrocious calumny, the report of his having had any part in 
the mysterious death of his son. But how will they apolo- 
gize for the Czar's neglect of that son's education, from which 
all the misfortunes of his life arose ? 

But all this is past forever ; the only advantage we can 
gain from recalling these circumstances, is a confirmation of 
this important principle in education ; that, when precept and 
example counteract one another, there is no hope of success. 
Nor can the utmost severity effect any useful purpose, whilst 
the daily experience of the pupil contradicts his preceptor's 
lessons. In fact, severity is seldom necessary in a well con- 
ducted education. The smallest possible degree of pain, 
which can, in any case, produce the required effect, is indis- 
putably the just measure of the punishment which ought to be 
inflicted in any given case. This simple axiom will lead us to a 
number of truths, which immediately depend upon or result 
from it. We must attend to every circumstance which can di- 
minish the quantity of pain, without lessening the efficacy of pun- 
ishment. Now it has been found from experience, that there are 
several circumstances which operate uniformly fo this purpose. 
We formerly observed, that the effect of punishment upon the 
minds of children, before they reason, depends much upon hsim- 
mediately succeeding the fault, and also upon its being certainly 
repeated whenever the same fault is committed. After children 
acquire the power of reasoning, from a variety of new motives, 
these laws with respect to punishment, derive additional force. 
A trifling degree of pain will answer the purpose, if it be made 
inevitable ; whilst the fear of an enormous proportion of uncer- 
tain punishment, will not be found sufficient to govern the im- 
agination. The contemplation of a distant punishment, howev- 
er severe, does not affect the imagination with much terror, be- 
cause there is still a secret hope of escape in the mind. Hence 
it is found from experience, that the most sanguinary penal laws 
have always been ineffectual to restrain from crimes.* Even if 
detection be inevitable, and consequent punishment equally in- 
evitable, if punishment be not inflicted as soon as the criminal 
is convicted, it has been found that is has not, either as a pre- 
ventative, or a public example, the same power upon the hu- 
man mind. Not only should the punishment be immediate af- 
ter conviction, but detection should follow the offence as speed- 
ily as possible. Without entering at large into the intricate 
arguments concerning identity and consciousness, we may ob- 



See Beccaria, Blackstone, Colquhoun. 



UEWAKDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 153 

Serve, that the consciousness of having committed the offence 
for which he suffers, ought at the time of suffering, to be strong 
in the offender's mind. Though proofs of his identity may 
have been legally established in»a court of justice ; and though, 
as far as it relates to public justice, it matters not whether the 
offence for which he is punished has been committed yes- 
terday or a year ago; yet, as to the effect which the punish- 
ment produces on the culprit's own mind, there must be a ma- 
terial difference. 

" I desire you to judge of me, not by what I was, but by 
what I am," said 'a philosopher, when he was rep*.^. ched for 
some of his past transgressions. If the interval uetween an 
offence and its punishment be long, it is possible that, during 
this interval, a complete change may be made in the views 
and habits of the offender ; such a change as shall absolutely 
preclude all probability of his repeating his offence. His 
punishment must then be purely for the sake of example to 
others. He suffers pain at the time, perhaps, when he is in 
the best social dispositions possible ; and thus we punish the 
present good man for the faults of the former offender. We 
readily excuse the violence which a man in a passion may 
have committed, when, upon his return to his sober senses, 
he expresses contrition and surprise at his own excesses; he 
assures us, and we believe him, that he is now a perfectly dif- 
ferent person. Jf we do not feel any material ill consequences 
from his late anger, we are willing, and even desirous, that the 
passionate man should not, in his sober state, be punished for 
his madness; all that we can desire, is to have some seeindty, 
against his falling into any fresh fit of anger. CouM L' : > hab- 
its of temper be instantly changed, and could we have a moral 
certainty that his frenzy would never more do us any injury, 
would it not be malevolent and unjust to punish him for his 
old insanity ? If we think and act upon these principles with 
respect to men, how much more indulgent should we be to 
children? Indulgence is perhaps an improper word — but in 
other words, how careful should we be never to chain chil- 
dren to their dead faults ! * Children, during their education, 
must be in a continual state of progression ; they are not the 
same to-day that they were yesterday, they have little reflec- 
tion ; their consciousness of the present occupies them ; and it 
would be extremely difficult from day to day, or from hour to 
hour, to identify their minds. Far from wishing that they should 
distinctly remember all their past thoughts, and that they 
should value themselves upon their continuing the same, we 



- Mszentius. Virgil- 
20 



154 PRACTICAL, EDUCATION. 

must frequently desire that they should forget their former er- 
rors, and absolutely change their manner of thinking. They 
should feel no interest in adhering to former bad habits or false 
opinions ; therefore, their pfide should not be roused to de- 
fend these by our making them a part of their standing charac- 
ter. The character of children is to be formed — we should 
never speak of it as positively fixed. Man has been defined to 
be a bundle of habits ; till the bundle is made up, we may 
continually increase or diminish it. Children, who are zeal- 
ous in defence of their own perfections, are of all others most 
likely to Wcome stationary in their intellectual progress, and 
disingenuous in their temper. It would be in vain to repeat 
to them this sensible and elegant observation — " to confess 
that you have been in the wrong, is only saying, in other words, 
that you are wiser to-day than you were yesterday." This re- 
mark will rather pique, than comfort, the pride of those who 
are anxious to prove that they have been equally wise and im- 
maculate in every day of their existence. 

It may be said 5 that children cannot too early be made sen- 
sible of the value of reputation, and they must be taught to 
connect the ideas of their past and present selves, otherwise 
they cannot perceive, for instance, why confidence should be 
placed in them in proportion to their past integrity ; or why 
falsehood should lead to distrust. The force of this argument 
must be admitted ; yet still we must consider the age and 
strength of mind in children in applying it to practice. Truth 
is not instinctive in the mind, and the ideas of integrity, and 
of the advantages of reputation, must be very cautiously in- 
troduced, lest, by giving children too perfect a theory of mo- 
rality, before they have sufficient strength of mind to adhere 
to it in practice, we may make them hypocrites, or else give 
them a fatal distrust of themselves, founded upon too early 
an experience of their own weakness, and too great sensibili- 
ty to shame. 

Shame, when it once becomes familiar to the mind, loses 
its effect ; it should not, therefore, be used as a common pun- 
ishment for slight faults. Nor should we trust very early in 
education to the delicate secret influence of conscience ; but 
we should take every precaution to prevent the necessity of 
having recourse to the punishment of disgrace ; and we must, 
if we mean to preserve the power of conscience, take care 
that it be never disregarded with impunity. We must avoid 
opposing it to strong temptation ; nor should we ever try the 
integrity of children, except in situations where we can be 
perfectly certain of the result of the experiment. We must 
neither run the risk of injuring them by unjust suspicions, nor 
unmerited confidence. By prudent arrangements, and by 
unremitted daily attention, we should absolutely prevent the 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 155 

possibility of deceit. By giving a few commands, or prohi- 
tions, we may avoid the danger of either secret or open dis- 
obedience. By diminishing temptations to do wrong, we 
act more humanely than by multiplying restraints and pun- 
ishments. 

It has been found, that no restraints or punishments have 
proved adequate to insure obedience to laws, whenever strong 
temptations, and many probabilities of evasion, combine in op- 
position to conscience or fear. The terrors of the law have 
been for years ineffectually directed against a race of beings 
called smugglers : yet smuggling is still an extensive, lucra- 
tive, and not universally discreditable, profession. Let any 
person look into the history of the excise laws,* and he will 
be astonished at the accumulation of penal statutes, which the 
active, but ineffectual, ingenuity of prohibitory legislators has 
devised in the course of about thirty years. Open war was 
declared against all illegal distillers ; yet the temptation to 
illegal distilling continually increased, in proportion to the 
heavy duties laid upon the fair trader. It came at length to a 
trial of skill between revenue officers and distillers, which could 
cheat, or which could detect, the fastest. The distiller had 
the strongest interest in the business, and he usually came off 
victorious. Coursing officers, and watching officers (once ten 
watching officers were set upon one distiller) and surveyors and 
supervisors, multiplied without end : the land in their fiscal 
maps was portioned out into divisions and districts, and each 
gauger had the charge of all the distillers in his division : the 
watching officer went first, and the coursing officer went after 
him, and after him the supervisor ; and they had table-books, 
and gauging-rods, and dockets, and permits ; permits for sellers, 
and permits for buyers, and permits for foreign spirits, printed 
in red ink, and permits for British spirits, in black ink ; and 
they went about night and day with their hydrometers, to 
ascertain the strength of spirits ; and with their gauging-rods, 
to measure wash. But the pertinacious distiller was still flour- 
ishing ; permits were forgecj ; concealed pipes were fabri- 
cated ; and the proportion between the xoash and spirits was 
seldom legal. The commissioners complained, and the legis- 
lators went to work again. Under a penalty of £100, dis- 
tillers were ordered to paint the words distiller, dealer in spi- 
rits, over their doors ; and it was further enacted, that all the 
distillers should furnish, at their own expense, any kind of 
locks, and fastenings, which the revenue officers should re- 
quire for locking up the doors of their own furnaces, the 
heads of their own stills, pumps, pipes, &c. First, suspicions 



V. An Enquiry into the Principles of Taxation, p. 37, published in 1790. 



15'6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

fell upon the public distiller for exportation; then his utensils 
were locked up ; afterwards the private distiller was suspect- 
ed, and he was locked up : then they set him and his furnaces 
at liberty, and went back in a passion to the public distiller. 
The legislature condescended to interfere, and with a new 
lock and key, precisely described in an act of parliament, it 
was hoped all would be made secure. Any person being a 
distiller, who should lock up his furnace or pipes with a key 
constructed differently from that which the act described, or 
any person making such illegal key for said distiller, was sub- 
ject to the forfeiture of £100. The padlock was never fixed 
upon the mind, and even the lock and key, prescribed by act 
of" parliament, were found inefficacious. Any common black- 
smith, with a picklock in his possession, laughed at the com- 
bined skill of the two houses of parliament. 

This digression from the rewards and punishments of chil- 
dren, to the distillery laws, may, it is hoped, be pardoned, if 
the useful moral can be drawn from it, that, where there are 
great temptations to fraud, and continual opportunities of eva- 
sion, no laws, however ingenious, no punishments, however 
exorbitant, can avail. The history of coiners, venders, and 
utterers, of his majesty's coin, as lately detailed to us by re- 
spectable authority,* may afford further illustration of this 
principle. 

There is no imminent danger of children becoming either 
coiners or fraudulent distillers ; but an ingenious preceptor 
will not be much puzzled in applying the remarks that have 
been made, to the subject of education. For the anti-climax, 
in descending from the legislation of men to the government 
of children, no apology is attempted. 

The fewer the laws we make for children, the better. What- 
ever they may be, they should be distinctly expressed ; the 
letter and spirit should both agree, and the words should bear 
but one signification, clear to all the parties concerned. They 
should never be subject to the ex post facto interpretation of 
an angry preceptor, or a cunning pupil ; no loose general 
terms should permit tyranny, or encourage quibbling. There 
is saidt to be a Chinese law, which decrees, that whoever 
does not show proper respect to the sovereign, is to be punished 
with death. What is meant by the words proper respect, is not 
defined. Two persons made a mistake in some account of 
an insignificant affair, in one of their court gazettes. It was 
declared, that to lie in a court gazette, is to be wanting in pro- 



* Colquhoun. On the Police of the Metropolis. 

t V. The grand instructions to the commissioners appointed to frame a new 
code of laws for the Russian empire, p. 183, said to he drawn up by the late 
I^ord Mansfield. 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 157 

per respect to the court. Both the careless scribes were put to 
death. One of the princes of the blood inadvertently put 
some mark upon a memorial, which had been signed by the 
emperor Bogdo Chan. This was construed to be a want of 
proper respect to Bogdo Chan the emperor, and a horrible per- 
secution hence arose against the scrawling prince and his 
whole family. May no schoolmasters, ushers, or others, ever 
(even as far as they are able) imitate Bogdo Chan, and may 
they always define to their subjects, what they mean by pro- 
per respect ! 

There is a sort of mistaken mercy sometimes shown to 
children, which is, in reality, the greatest cruelty. People, 
who are too angry to refrain from threats, are often too indo- 
lent, or too compassionate, to put their threats in execution. 
Between their words and actions there is hence a manifest 
contradiction ; their pupils learn from experience, either total- 
ly to disregard these threats, or else to calculate, from the 
various degrees of anger which appear in the threatener's 
countenance, what real probability there is of his being as 
good or as bad as his word. Far from perceiving that pun- 
ishment, in this case, is pain given with the reasonable hope of 
making him wiser or happier, the pupil is convinced, that his 
master punishes him only to gratify the passion of anger, to 
which he is unfortunately ■ subject. Even supposing that 
threateners are exact in fulfilling their threats, and that they 
are not passionate, but simply wish to avoid giving pain ; they 
endeavour to excite the fears of their pupils as the means of 
governing them with the least possible pain. But with fear 
they excite all the passions and habits which are connected 
with that mean principle of action, and they extinguish that 
vigorous spirit, that independent energy of soul, which is es- 
sential to all the active and manly virtues. Young people, 
who find that their daily pleasures depend not so much upon 
their own exertions as upon the humour and caprice of others, 
become absolute courtiers ; they practise all the arts of per- 
suasion, and all the crouching hypocrisy which can deprecate 
wrath, or propitiate favour. Their notions of right and 
wrong cannot be enlarged ; their recollection of the rewards 
and punishments of their childhood, is always connected with 
the ideas of tyranny and slavery ; and when they break their 
own chains, they are impatient to impose similar bonds upon 
their inferiors. 

An argument has been used to prove, that in some cases 
anger is part of the justice of punishment, because " mere re- 
proof, without sufficient marks of displeasure and emotion, af- 
fects a child very little, and is soon forgotten."* It cannot be 

* V. Dr. Priestley's Miscellaneous Observations relating to Education, sect. 
vii. of correction, p. 67. 



158 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

doubted, that the expression of indignation is a just conse- 
quence of certain faults, and the general indignation with 
which these are spoken of before young people, must make a 
strong and useful impression upon their minds. They reflect 
upon the actions of others ; they see the effects which these 
produce upon the human mind ; they put themselves in the 
situation alternately of the person who expresses indignation, 
and of him who suffers shame ; they measure the fault and its 
consequences, and they resolve to conduct themselves so as 
to avoid that just indignation of which they dread to be the 
object. These are the general conclusions which children 
draw when they are impartial spectators ; but where they are 
themselves concerned, their feelings and their reasonings are 
very different. If they have done any thing which they know 
to be wrong, they expect, and are sensible that they deserve, 
displeasure and indignation ; but if any precise penalty is an- 
nexed to the fault, the person who is to inflict it, appears to 
them in the character of a judge, who is bound to repress his 
own feelings, and coolly to execute justice. If the judge both 
reproaches and punishes, he doubles the punishment. When- 
ever indignation is expressed, no vulgar trivial penalties 
should accompany it ; the pupil should feel that it is indigna- 
tion against his fault, and not against himself; and that it is 
not excited in his preceptor's mind by any petty personal 
considerations. A child distinguishes between anger and 
indignation very exactly ; the one commands his respect, the 
other raises his contempt as soon as his fears subside. Dr. 
Priestley seems to think that, " it is not possible to express 
displeasure with sufficient force, especially to a child, when a 
man is perfectly cool." May we not reply to this, that it is 
scarcely possible to express displeasure with sufficient pro- 
priety, especially to a child, when a man is in a passion 1 The 
propriety is, in this case, of at least as much consequence as 
the force of the reprimand. The effect which the preceptor's 
displeasure will produce, must be, in some proportion, to the 
esteem which his pupil feels for him. If he cannot command 
his irascible passions, his pupil cannot continue to esteem 
him ; and there is an end of all that fear of his disapproba- 
tion, which was founded upon esteem, and which can never 
be founded upon a stronger or a better basis. We should 
further consider, that the opinions of all the by-standers, es- 
pecially if they be any of them of the pupil's own age, have 
great influence upon his mind. It is not to be expected that 
they should all sympathize equally with the angry preceptor ; 
and we know, that whenever the indignation expressed against 
any fault, appears, in the least, to pass the bound of exact 
justice, the sympathy of the spectators immediately revolts in 
favour of the culprit; the fault is forgotten or excused, and 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 159 

alljoinjn spontaneous compassion. In public schools, this 
happens so frequently, that the master's displeasure seldom 
affects the little community with any sorrow ; combined to- 
gether, they make each other amends for public punishments, 
by private pity or encouragement. In families, which are 
not well regulated, that is to say, in which the interests of all 
the individuals do not coalesce, the same evils areto be dread- 
ed. Neither indignation nor shame can affect children in such 
schools, or such families ; the laws and manners, public pre- 
cept and private opinion, contradict one another. 

In a variety of instances in society, we may observe, that 
the best laws and the best principles are not sufficient to re- 
sist the combination of numbers. Never attempt to affix infa- 
my to a number of people at once, says a philosophic legisla- 
tor.* This advice showed that he perfectly understood the 
nature of the passion of shame. Numbers keep one another 
in countenance; they form a society for themselves; and 
sometimes by peculiar phrases, and an appropriate language, 
confound the established opinions of virtue and vice, and en- 
joy a species of self-complacency independent of public opin- 
ion, and often in direct opposition to their former conscience. 
Whenever any set of men want to get rid of the shame annex- 
ed to particular actions, they begin by changing the names and 
epithets which have been generally used to express them, 
and which they know are associated with the feelings of 
shame : these feelings are not awakened by the new language, 
and by degrees they are forgotten, or they are supposed to 
have been merely prejudices and habits, which former meth- 
ods of speaking taught people to reverence. Thus the most 
disgraceful combinations of men, who live by violating and 
evading the laws of society, have all a peculiar phraseology 
amongst themselves, by which jocular ideas are associated 
with the most disputable actions. 

Those who live by depredation on the river Thames, do 
not call themselves thieves, but lumpers and mudlarks. Coin- 
ers give regular mercantile names to the different branches of 
their trade, and to the various kinds of false money which 
they circulate : such as flats, or Jigs, or fig-things. Unlicenced 
lottery wheels, are called little goes ; and the men who are 
sent about to public houses to entice poor people into illegal 
lottery insurances are called Morocco-men : a set of villains, 
hired by these fraudulent lottery keepers, to resist the civil 
power during the drawing of the lottery, call themselves 
bludgeon-men ; and in the language of robbers, a receiver of 
stolen goods is said to be staunch, when it is believed that he 



* V. Code of Russian Laws. 



160 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

will go all lengths rather than betray the secrets of a^ang of 
highwaymen.* 

Since words have such power in their turn over ideas, we 
must, in education, attend to the language of children as a 
means of judging of the state of their minds; and whenever 
we find, that in their conversation with one another they have 
any slang, which turns moral ideas into ridicule, we may be 
certain that this must have arisen from some defect in their 
education. The power of shame must then be tried in some 
new shape, to break this false association of ideas. Shame, 
in a new shape, affects the mind with surprising force, in the 
same manner as danger in a new form alarms the courage of 
veterans. An extraordinary instance of this, may be observ- 
ed in the management of Gloucester jail : a blue and yellow 
jacket has been found to have a most powerful effect upon 
men supposed to be dead to shame. The keeper of the 
prison told us, that the most unruly offenders could be kept 
in awe by the dread of a dress which exposed them to the 
ridicule of their companions, no new term having been yet 
invented to counteract the terrors of the yellow jacket. To 
prevent the mind from becoming insensible to shame, it must 
be very sparingly used ; and the hope and possibility of re- 
covering esteem, must always be kept alive. Those who are 
excluded from hope, are necessarily excluded from virtue ; 
the loss of reputation, we see, is almost always followed by 
total depravity. The cruel prejudices which are harboured 
against particular classes of people, usually tend to make the 
individuals who are the best disposed amongst these sects, 
despair of obtaining esteem ; and, consequently, careless about 
deserving it. There can be nothing inherent in the knavish 
propensity of Jews ; but the prevailing opinion, that avarice, 
dishonesty and extortion, are the characteristics of a Jew, has 
probably induced many of the tribe to justify the antipathy 
which they could not conquer. Children are frequently con- 
firmed in faults, by .the imprudent and cruel custom which 
some parents have of settling early in life, that such a thing 
is natural ; that such and such dispositions are not to be 
cured ; that cunning, perhaps, is the characteristic of one 
child, and caprice of another. This general odium oppresses 
and dispirits : such children think it is in vain to struggle 
against nature, especially as they do not clearly understand 
what is meant by nature. They submit to our imputations, 
without knowing how to refute them. On the contrary, if we 
treat them with more good sense and benevolence, if we ex- 
plain to them the nature of the human mind, and if we lay 



* Colquhouu. 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS-. 161 

open to them the history of their own, they will assist us in 
endeavouring to cure their faults, and they will not be debili- 
tated by indistinct, superstitious fears. At ten or eleven 
years old, children are capable of understanding some of the 
the general principles of rational morality, and these they 
can apply to their own conduct in many instances, which, 
however trivial they may appear, are not beneath our notice. 

June 16, 1796. S (nine years old) had lost his pencil; 

his father said to him, " I wish to give you another pencil, 
but I am afraid I should do you harm if I did; you would not 
take care of your things if you did not feel some inconvenience 
when you lose them." The boy's lips moved as if he were 
saying to himself, " I understand this ; it is just." His father 
guessed that these were the thoughts that were passing in his 
mind, and asked whether he interpreted rightly the motion of 

the lips. "Yes," said S , "that was exactly what I was 

thinking." " Then," said his father, " I will give you a bit 
of my own pencil this instant : all I want is to make the ne- 
cessary impression upon your mind ; that is all the use of 
punishment; you know we do not want to torment you." 

As young people grow up, and perceive the consequences 
of their own actions, and the advantages of credit and cha- 
racter, they become extremely solicitous to preserve the good 
opinion of those whom they love and esteem. They are now 
capable of taking the future into their view as well as the 
present; and at this period of their education, the hand of 
authority should never be hastily used ; the voice of reason 
will never fail to make herself heard, especially if reason 
speak with the tone of affection. During the first years of 
childhood, it did not seem prudent to make any punishment 
lasting, because young children quickly forget their faults ; 
and having little experience, cannot feel how their past con- 
duct is likely to affect their future happiness : but as soon as 
they have more enlarged experience, the nature of their 
punishments should alter ; if we have any reason to esteem 
or love them less, our contempt and displeasure should not 
lightly be dissipated. Those who reflect, are more influenced 
by the idea of the duration, than of the intensity of any men- 
tal pain. In those calculations which are constantly made- 
before we determine upon action or forbearance, some tem- 
pers estimate any evil which is likely to be but of short dura- 
tion, infinitely below its real importance. Young men, of 
sanguine and courageous dispositions, her~e frequently act 
imprudently; the consequences of their \ erity will, they 
think, soon be over, and they feel that they are able to sup- 
port evil for a short time, however great it may be. Anger, 
i'hey know, is a short-lived passion, and they do. not scruple 
2! 



162 PRACTICAL EBUCATION. 

running the hazard of exciting anger in the hearts of those 
they love the best in the world. The experience of lasting, 
sober disapprobation, is intolerably irksome to them ; any in- 
convenience which continues for a length of time, wearies 
them excessively. After they have endured, as the conse- 
quence of any actions, this species of punishment they will 
long remember their sufferings, and will carefully avoid incur- 
ring, in future, similar penalties. Sudden and transient pain 
appears to be most effectual with persons of an opposite tem- 
perament. 

Young people, of a torpid, indolent temperament, are much 
under the dominion of habit ; if they happen to have con- 
tracted any disagreeable or bad habits, they have seldom 
sufficient energy to break them. The stimulus of sudden 
pain is necessary in this case. The pupil may be perfectly 
convinced, that such a habit ought to be broken, and may 
wish to break it most sincerely ; but may yet be incapable of 
the voluntary exertion requisite to obtain success. It would be 
dangerous to let the habit, however insignificant, continue 
victorious, because the child would hence be discouraged 
from all future attempts to battle with himself. Either we 
should not attempt the conquest of the habit, or we should 
persist till we have vanquished. The confidence, which this 
sense of success will give the pupil, will probably in his own 
opinion, be thought well worthy the price. Neither his rea- 
son nor his will was in fault ; all he wanted, was strength to 
break the diminutive chains of habit ; chains which, it seems, 
have power to enfeeble their captives exactly in proportion 
to the length of time they are worn. 

Every bodj^ has probably found, from their own experience, 
how difficult it is to alter little habits in manners, pronuncia- 
tion, &c. Children are often teased with frequent admoni- 
tions about their habits of sitting, standing, walking, talking, 
eating, speaking, &c. Parents are early aware of the impor- 
tance of agreeable, graceful manners ; every body who sees 
children, can judge, or think that they can judge, of their 
manners ; and from anxiety that children should appear to ad- 
vantage in company, parents solicitously watch all their ges- 
tures, and correct all their attitudes according to that image 
of the " beau ideal" which happens to be most fashionable. 
The most convenient and natural attitudes are not always the 
most approved. The constraint which children suffer from 
their obedience, obliges them at length to rest their tortured 
muscles, and to throw themselves, for relief, into attitudes the 
very reverse of those which they have practised with so much 
pain. Hence they acquire opposite habits in their manners, 
and there is a continual struggle between these. They find 
it impossible to correct, instantaneously, the awkward tricks 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 163 

which they have acquired, and they learn ineffectually to at- 
tempt a conquest over themselves ; or else, which is most 
commonly the catastrophe, they learn to hear the exhorta- 
tions and rebukes of all around them,' without being stimula- 
ted to any degree of exertion.* The same voices which lose 
their power on these trifling occasions, lose, at the same time, 
much of their general influence. More power is wasted upon 
trifling defects in the manners of children, than can be imag- 
ined by any who have not particularly attended to this sub- 
ject. If it be thought indispensably necessary to speak to 
children eternally about their manners, this irritating and dis- 
agreeable office should devolve upon somebody whose influ- 
ence over the children we are not anxious to preserve undi- 
minished. A little ingenuity in contriving the dress, writing- 
desks, reading desks, &c. of children, who are any way de- 
fective in their shape, might spare much of the anxiety which 
is felt by their parents, and much of the bodily and mental pain 
which they alternately endure themselves. For these pa- 
tients, would it not be rather more safe to consult the philo- 
sophic physician,! than the dancing master who is not bound 
to understand either anatomy or metaphysics ? 

Every preventative which is discovered for any defect, 
either in manners, temper, or understanding, diminishes the 
necessity for punishment. Punishments are the abrupt, brutal 
resource of ignorance, frequently^ to cure the effects of former 
negligence. With children who have been reasonably and 
affectionately educated, scarcely any punishments are requi- 
site. This is not an assertion hazarded without experience ; 
the happy experience of several years, and of several chil- 
dren of different ages and tempers, justifies this assertion. 
As for corporeal punishments, they may be necessary where 
boys are to be drilled in a given time into scholars ; but the 
language of blows need seldom be used to reasonable crea- 
tures. The idea that it is disgraceful to be governed by 
force, should be kept alive in the minds of children ; the 
dread of shame is a more powerful motive than the fear of 
bodily pain. To prove the truth of this, we may recollect that 
few people have ever been known to destroy themselves in or- 
der to escape from bodily pain; but numbers, to avoid shame, 
have put an end to their existence. It has been a question, 
whether mankind are most governed by hope or by fear, by 
rewards -or by punishments ? This question, like many oth- 
ers which have occasioned tedious debates, turns chiefly upon 



* See the judicious Locke's observations upon the subject of manntrs, sec- 
tion 67 of his valuable Treatise on Education, 
t See vol. ii. of Zoonomia. 
$ We believe this is Williams's idea. 



164 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

words. Hope and fear are sometimes used to denote mixed, 
and sometimes unmixed passions. Those who speak of them 
as unmixed passions, cannot have accurately examined their 
own feelings. * The probability of good, produces hope ; the 
the probability of evil, excites fear ; and as this probability 
appears less or greater, more remote or nearer to us, the mind 
fluctuates between the opposite passions. When the proba- 
bility increases on either side, so does the corresponding pas- 
sion. Since these passions seldom exist in absolute separa- 
tion from one another, it appears that we cannot philosophical- 
ly speak of either as an independent motive : to the question, 
therefore, "which governs mankind the most, hope or fear?" 
we cannot give an explicit answer. 

When we would determine upon the probability of any good 
or evil, we are insensibly influenced, not only by the view of 
the circumstances before us, but also by our previous habits ; 
we judge not only by the general laws of human events, but 
also by our own individual experience. If we have been usual- 
ly successful, we are inclined to hope ; have we been accus- 
tomed to misfortunes, we are hence disposed to fear. " Caesar 
and his fortune are on board," exclaimed the confident hero 
to the mariners. Hope excites the mind to exertion; fear re- 
presses all activity. As a preventative from vice, you may 
employ fear; to restrain the excesses of all the furious pas- 
sions, it is useful and necessary : but would you rouse the en- 
ergies of virtue, you must inspire and invigorate the soul with 
hope. Courage, generosity, industry, perseverance, all 
the magic of talents, all the powers of genius, all the vir- 
tues that appear spontaneous in great minds, spring from 
hope. But how different is the hope of a great and of a lit- 
tle mind ; not only are the objects of this hope different, but 
the passion itself is raised and supported in a different man- 
ner. A feeble person, if he presumes to hope, hopes as su- 
perstitiously as he fears ; he keeps his attention sedulously 
fixed upon all the probabilities in his favour ; he will not listen 
to any argument in opposition to his wishes ; he knows he is 
unreasonable, he persists in continuing so; he does not con- 
nect any idea of exertion with hope ; his hope usually rests 
upon the exertions of others, or upon some fortuitous circum- 
stances. A man of a strong mind, reasons before he hopes ; 
lie takes in, at one quick, comprehensive glance, all that is 
to be seen both for and against him ; he is, from experience, 
disposed to depend much upon his own exertions, if they can 
turn the balance in his favour ; he hopes, he acts, he succeeds. 
Poets, in all ages, have celebrated the charms of hope ; with- 



* Hume's Dissertation on the Passions. 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 165 

out her propitious influence, life, they tell us, would be worse 
than death ; without her smiles, nature would smile in vain; 
without her promises, treacherous though they often prove, 
reality would have nothing to give worthy of our acceptance. 
We are not bound, however, to understand literally, the rhet- 
oric of poets. Hope is to them a beautiful and useful alle- 
gorical personage : sometimes leaning upon an anchor ; some- 
times " waving her golden hair ;" always young, smiling 
enchanting, furnished with a rich assortment of epithets 
suited to the ode, the sonnet, the madrigal, Avith a tradition- 
ary number of images and allusions; what more can a poet 
desire ? Men, except when they are poets, do not value 
hope as the first of terrestrial blessings. The action and 
energies which hope produces, are to many more agreeable 
than the passion itself; that feverish state of suspense, 
which prevents settled thought or vigorous exertion, far 
from being agreeable, is highly painful to a well regulated 
mind ; the continued repetition of the same ideas and the same 
calculations, fatigues the mind, which, in reasoning, has been 
accustomed to arrive at some certain conclusion, or to advance, 
at least, a step at every effort. The exercise of the mind, in 
changing the views of its object, which is supposed to be a 
great part of the pleasure of hope, is soon over to an active 
imagination, which quickly runs through all the possible 
changes ; or is this exercise, even while it lasts, so delightful 
to a man who has a variety of intellectual occupations, as it 
frequently appears to him who knows scarcely any other 
species of mental activity ? The vacillating state of mind, 
peculiar to hope and fear, is by no means favourable to in- 
dustry ; half our time is generally consumed in speculating 
upon the reward, instead of earning it, whenever the value of 
that reward is not precisely ascertainable. In all occupations, 
where judgment or accurate observation is essential, if the re- 
ward of our labour is brought suddenly to excite our hope, 
there is an immediate interruption of all effectual labour ; the 
thoughts take a new direction ; the mind becomes tremulous, 
and nothing decisive can be done, till the emotions of hope 
and fear either subside or are vanquished. 

M. l'Abbe Chappe, who was sent by the king of France, at 
the desire of the French Academy, to Siberia to observe the tran- 
sit of Venus, gives us a striking picture of the state of his own 
mind when the moment of this famous observation approached. 
In the description of his own feelings, this traveller may be ad- 
mitted as good authority. A few hours before the observa- 
tion, a black cloud appeared in the sky ; the idea of return- 
ing to Paris, after such a long and perilous journey, without 
having seen the transit of Venus ; the idea of the disappoint- 
ment to his king, to his country, to all the philosophers in Eu- 



16& PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

rope ; threw him into a state of agitation, " which must have 
been felt to be conceived." At length the black cloud vanish- 
ed ; his hopes affected him almost as much as his fears had 
done 5 he fixed his telescope, saw the planet ; his eye wan- 
dered over the immense space a thousand times in a minute ; 
his secretary stood on one side with his pen in his hand ; his as- 
sistant, with his eye fixed upon the watch, was stationed on 
the other side. The moment of the total immersion arrived ; 
the agitated philosopher was seized with an universal shiver- 
ing, and could scarcely command his thoughts sufficiently to 
secure the observation. 

The uncertainty of reward, and the consequent agitations 
of hope and fear, operate as unfavourably upon the moral as 
upon the intellectual character. The favour of princes is 
an uncertain reward. Courtiers are usually despicable and 
wretched beings : they live upon hope ; but their hope is not 
connected with exertion. Those who court popularity, are not 
less despicable or less wretched ; their reward is uncertain : 
what is more uncertain than the affection of the multitude ? 
The Proteus character of Wharton, so admirably drawn by 
Pope, is a striking picture of a man who has laboured through 
life with the vague hope of obtaining universal applause. 

Let us suppose a child to be educated by a variety of per- 
sons, all differing in their tastes and tempers, and in their no- 
tions of right and wrong; all having the power to reward and 
punish their common pupil. What must this pupil become? 
A mixture of incongruous characters ; superstitious, enthusias- 
tic, indolent, and perhaps profligate : superstitious, because 
his own contradictory experience would expose him to fear 
without reason ; enthusiastic, because he would, from the same 
cause, form absurd expectations ; indolent, because the willof 
others has been the measure of his happiness, and his own 
exertions have never procured him any certain reward ; pro- 
fligate, because, probably from the confused variety of his 
moral lessons, he has at last concluded that right and wrong 
are but unmeaning words. Let us change the destiny of this 
child, by changing his education. Place him under the sole 
care of a person of an enlarged capacity, and a steady mind ; 
who has formed just notions of right and wrong, and who, in 
the distribution of reward and punishment, of praise and 
blame, will be prompt, exact, invariable. His pupil will nei- 
ther be credulous, rash, nor profligate ; and he certainly will 
not be indolent ; his habitual and his rational belief will, in all 
circumstances agree with each other ; his hope will be the 
prelude to exertion^ and his fear will restrain him only in sit- 
uations where action is dangerous. 

Even amongst children, we must frequently have observed 
a prodigious difference in the quantity of hope and fear which 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 1G7 

is felt by those who have been well or ill-educated. An ill 
educated child, is in daily, hourly, alternate agonies of hope 
and fear ; the present never occupies or interests him, but his 
soul is intent upon some future gratification, which never pays 
him by its full possession. As soon as he awakens in the 
morning, he recollects some promised blessing, and, till the 
happy moment arrives, he is wretched in impatience: at 
breakfast he is to be blessed with some toy, that he is to have 
the moment breakfast is finished ; and when he finds the toy 
does not delight him, he is to be blessed with a sweet pudding at 
dinner, or with sitting up half an hour later at night than his 
usual bed-time. Endeavour to find some occupation that shall 
amuse him, you will not easily succeed, for he will still antici- 
pate what you are going to say or do. " What will come next ?" 
" What shall we do after this ?" are, as Mr. Williams, in his 
able lectures upon education, observes, the questions inces- 
santly asked by spoiled children. This species of idle, restless, 
curiosity, does not lead to the acquisition of knowledge, it pre- 
vents the possibility of instruction ; it is not the animation of a 
healthy mind, it is the debility of an over-stimulated tem- 
per. There is a very sensible letter in Mrs. Macaulay's book 
upon education, on the impropriety of filling the imagination 
of young people with prospects of future enjoyment : the fool- 
ish system of promising great rewards, and fine presents, she 
clearly shows creates habitual disorders in the minds of chil- 
dren. 

The happiness of life depends more upon a succession of 
small enjoyments, than upon great pleasures ; and those who 
become incapable of tasting the moderately agreeable sensa- 
tions, cannot fill up the intervals of their existence between 
their great delights. The happiness of childhood peculiarly 
depends upon their enjoyment of little pleasures: of these 
they have a continual variety ; they have perpetual occupation 
for their senses, in observing all the objects around them, and 
all their faculties may be exercised upon suitable subjects. 
The pleasure of this exercise is in itself sufficient : we need not 
say to a child, " Look at the wings of this beautiful butterfly, 
and I will give you a piece of plum-cake ; observe how the 
butterfly curls his proboscis, how he dives into the honeyed 
flowers, and I will take you in a coach to pay a visit with 
me, my dear. Remember the pretty story you read this 
morning, and you shall have a new coat." Without the 
new coat, or the visit, or the plum-cake, the child would 
have had sufficient amusement in the story and the sight of 
the butterfly's proboscis : the rewards, besides, have no natu- 
ral connexion with the things themselves ; and they create 
where they are most liked, a taste for factitious pleasures. 
Would you encourage benevolence, generosity, or prudence, 



168 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

let each have its appropriate reward of affection, esteem, and 
confidence ;* but do not by ill-judged bounties attempt to force 
these virtues into premature display. The rewards which are 
given to benevolence and generosity in children, frequently 
encourage selfishness, and sometimes teach them cunning. 
Lord Karnes tells us a story, which is precisely a case in point. 
Two boys, the sons of the earl of Elgin, were permitted by 
their father to associate with the poor boys in the neighbour- 
hood of their father's house. One day, the earl's sons being 
called to dinner, a lad who was playing with them, said that 

he would wait until they returned "There is no dinner 

for me at home," said the poor boy. " Come with us, then," 
said the earl's sons. The boy refused, and when they asked 
him if he had any money to buy a dinner, he answered, " No." 
" Papa," said the eldest of the young gentlemen when he got 
home, " what was the price of the silver buckles you gave 
me ?" " Five shillings." " Let me have the money, and I'll 

five you the buckles." Tt was done accordingly, says Lord 
Lames. The earl, inquiring privately, found that the money 
was given to the lad who had no dinner. The buckles were 
returned, and the boy was highly commended for being kind 
to his companion. The commendations were just, but the 
buckles should not have been returned : the boy should have 
been suffered steadily to abide by his own bargain ; he should 
have been let to feel the pleasure, and pay the exact price of 
his own generosity. 

If we attempt to teach children that they can be generous, 
without giving up some of their own pleasures for the sake of 
other people, we attempt to teach them what is false. If we 
once make them amends for any sacrifice they have made, 
we lead them to expect the same remuneration upon a future 
occasion ; and then, in fact, they act with a direct view to 
their own interest, and govern themselves by the calculations of 
prudence, instead of following the dictates of benevolence. It 
is true, that if we speak with accuracy, we must admit, that 
the most benevolent and generous persons act from the hope 
of receiving pleasure, and their enjoyment is more exquisite 
than that of the most refined selfishness ; in the language of 
M. de Rochefoucault, we should therefore be forced to ac- 
knowledge, that the most benevolent is always the most selfish 
person. This seeming paradox is answered, by observing, 
that the epithet selfish is given to those who prefer pleasures 
in which other people have no share ; we change the meaning 
of words when we talk of its being selfish to like the pleasures 
of sympathy or benevolence, because these pleasures cannot 



* See Locke, and an excellent little essay of Madame de Lambert's. 



REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 169 

be confined solely to the idea of self. When we say that a 
person pursues his own interest more by being generous than 
by being covetous, we take into the account the general sura 
of his agreeable feelings ; we do not balance prudentially his 
loss or gain upon particular occasions. The generous man 
may himself be convinced, that the sum of his happiness is 
more increased by the feelings of benevolence, than it could 
be by the gratification of avarice ; but, though his understand- 
ing may perceive the demonstration of this moral theorem, 
though it is the remote principle of his whole conduct, it does 
not occur to his memory in the form of a prudential aphorism, 
whenever he is going to do a generous action. It is essential 
to our ideas of generosity, that no such reasoning should, at 
that moment, pass in his mind ; we know that the feelings of 
generosity are associated with a number of enthusiastic ideas 5 
we can sympathize with the virtuous insanity of the man who 
forgets himself whilst he thinks of others • we do not so read- 
ily sympathize with the cold strength of mind of the person, 
who, deliberately preferring the greatest possible share of happi- 
ness, is benevolent by rule and measure. 

Whether we are just or not, in refusing our sympathy to the 
man of reason, and in giving our spontaneous approbation to 
the man of enthusiasm, we shall not here examine. But the 
reasonable man, who has been convinced of this propensity 
in human nature, will take it into his calculations ; he will 
perceive, that he loses, in losing the pleasure of sympathy, 
part of the sum total of his possible happiness ; he will conse- 
quently wish, that he could add this item of pleasure to the 
credit side of his account. This, however, he cannot accom- 
plish, because, though he can by reason correct his calcula- 
tions, it is not in the power, even of the most potent reason, 
suddenly to break habitual associations ; much less is it in the 
power of cool reason to conjure up warm enthusiasm. Yet 
in this case, enthusiasm is the thing required. 

What the man of reason cannot do for himself after his asso- 
ciations are strongly formed, might have been easily accom- 
plished in his early education. He might have been taught 
the same general principles, but with different habits. By 
early associating the pleasures of sympathy, and praise, and 
affection with all generous and benevolent actions, his par- 
ents might have joined these ideas so forcibly in his mind, 
that the one set of ideas should never recur without the oth- 
er. Whenever the words benevolence or generosity were 
pronounced, the feelings of habitual pleasure would recur ; 
and he would, independently of reason, desire from associa- 
tion to be generous. When enthusiasm is fairly justified by 
reason, we have nothing to fear from her vehemence. 
22 



170 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

In rewarding children for the prudential virtues, such as 
order, cleanliness, economy, temperance, &c. we should en- 
deavour to make the rewards the immediate consequence of 
the virtues themselves ; and at the same time, approbation 
should be shown in speaking of these useful qualities. A gra- 
dation must, however, always be observed in our praises of 
different virtues ; those that are the most useful to society, as 
truth, justice and humanity, must stand the highest in the 
scale ; those that are most agreeable, claim the next place. 
Those good qualities, which must wait a considerable time for 
their reward, such as perseverance, prudence, &c. we must 
not expect early from young people. Till they have had ex- 
perience, how can they form any idea about the future ? 
Till they have been punctually rewarded for their industry, or 
for their prudence, they do not feel the value of prudence 
and perseverance. Time is necessary to all these lessons, and 
those who leave time out in their calculations, will always be 
disappointed in whatever plan of education they may pursue. 

Many, to whom the subject is familiar, will be fatigued, 
probably, by the detailed manner in which it has been thought 
necessary to explain the principles by which we should guide 
ourselves in the distribution of rewards and punishments to 
children. Those who quickly seize, and apply, general ideas, 
cannot endure, with patience, the tedious minuteness of di- 
dactic illustration. Those who are actually engaged in prac- 
tical education, will not, on the contrary, be satisfied with gen- 
eral precepts ; and, however plausible any theory may ap- 
pear, they are well aware that its utility must depend upon a 
variety of small circumstances, to which writers of theories 
often neglect to advert. At the hazard of being thought tedi- 
ous, those must be minute in explanation who desire to be 
generally useful. An old French writer, * more remarkable 
for originality of thought, than for the graces of style, was 
once reproached by a friend with the frequent repetitions 
which were to be found in his works. " Name them to me," 
said the author. The critic, with obliging precision, mention- 
ed all the ideas which had most frequently recurred in the 
book. " I am satisfied," replied the honest author; "you re- 
member my ideas ; I repeated them so often to prevent you 
from forgetting them. Without my repetitions, we should 
never have succeeded." 



* The Abbe St. Pierre. See his Elc-ge by D'Alembert 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 171 



CHAPTER X. 

ON SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 

The artless expressions of sympathy and sensibility in chil- 
dren, are peculiarly pleasing; people who, in their commerce 
with the world, have been disgusted and deceived by false- 
hood and affectation, listen with delight to the genuine lan- 
guage of nature. Those who have any interest in the educa- 
tion of children, have yet a higher sense of pleasure in ob- 
serving symptoms of their sensibility; they anticipate the fu- 
ture virtues which early sensibility seems certainly to prom- 
ise ; the future happiness which these virtues will diffuse. 
Nor are they unsupported by philosophy in these sanguine 
hopes. No theory was ever developed with more ingenious 
elegance, than that which deduces all our moral sentiments 
from sympathy. The direct influence of sympathy upon all 
social beings, is sufficiently obvious, and we immediately per- 
ceive its necessary connexion with compassion, friendship, 
and benevolence ; but the subject becomes more intricate 
when we are to analyse our sense of propriety and justice ; of 
merit and demerit; of gratitude and resentment; self-com- 
placency or remorse ; ambition and shame.* 

We allow, without hesitation, that a being destitute of sym- 
pathy, could never have any of these feelings, and must, con- 
sequently, be incapable of all intercourse with society ; yet 
we must at the same time perceive, that a being endowed with 
the most exquisite sympathy, must, without the assistance and 
education of reason, be, if not equally incapable of social in- 
tercourse, far more dangerous to the happiness of society. 
A person governed by sympathy alone, must be influenced 
by the bad as well as by the good passions of others ; he 
must feel resentment with the angry man ; hatred with the 
malevolent; jealousy with the jealous; and avarice with the 
miser : the more lively his sympathy with these painful feel- 
ings, the greater must be his misery ; the more forcibly he is 
impelled to action by this sympathetic influence, the greater, 
probably, must be his imprudence and his guilt. Let us even 



* Adam Smith. 



172 TRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

suppose a being capable of sympathy only with the best feel- 
ings of his fellow-creatures, still, without the direction of rea- 
son, he would be a nuisance in the world ; his pity would 
stop the hand, and overturn the balance of justice ; his love 
would be as dangerous as his pity; his gratitude would exalt 
his benefactor at the expense of the whole human race ; his 
sympathy with the rich, the prosperous, the great, and the 
fortunate, would be so sudden, and so violent, as to leave him 
no time for reflection upon the consequences of tyranny, or 
the miseries occasioned by monoply. No time for reflection, 
did we say ? We forgot that we were speaking of a being 
destitute of the reasoning faculty ! Such a being, no matter 
what his virtuous sympathies might be, must act either like a 
madman or a fool. On sympathy we cannot depend, either 
for the correctness of a man's moral sentiments, or for the 
steadiness of his moral conduct. It is very common to talk 
of the excellence of a person's heart, of the natural goodness 
of his disposition ; when these expressions distinctly mean 
any thing, they must refer to natural sympathy, or a superior 
degree of sensibility. Experience, however, does not teach 
us, that sensibility and virtue have any certain connexion 
with each other. No one can read the works of Sterne, or 
of Rousseau, without believing these men to have been en- 
dowed with extraordinary sensibility ; yet, who would pro- 
pose their conduct in life as a model for imitation ? That 
quickness of sympathy with present objects of distress, which 
constitutes compassion, is usually thought a virtue, but it is a 
virtue frequently found in persons of an abandoned charac- 
ter. Mandeville, in his essay upon Charity Schools, puts this 
in a strong light. 

" Should any one of us," says he, " be locked up in a 
ground room, where, in a yard joining to it, there w r as a thriving 
good humoured child at play, of two or three years old, so 
near us, that through the grates of the window we could al- 
most touch it with our hands ; and if, whilst we took delight 
in the harmless diversion, and imperfect prattle, of the inno- 
cent babe, a nasty overgrown sow should come in upon the 
child, set it a screaming, and frighten it out of its wits ; it is 
natural to think that this would make us uneasy, and that 
■with crying out, and making all the menacing noise we could, 
we should endeavour to drive the sow away — But if this 
should happen to be an half-starved creature, that, mad with 
hunger, went roaming about in quest of food, and we should 
behold the ravenous brute, in spite of our cries, and all the 
threatening gestures we could think of, actually lay hold of 
the helpless infant, destroy, and devour it ; — to see her widely 
open her destructive jaws, and the poor lamb beat down with 
greedy haste ; to look on the defenceless posture of tender 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 173 

limbs first trampled upon, then torn asunder ; to see the filthy 
snout digging in the yet living entrails, suck up the smoking 
blood, and now and then to hear the crackling of the bones, 
and the cruel animal grunt with savage pleasure over the 
horrid banquet ; to hear and see all this, what torture would 
it give the soul beyond expression ! ************** 
Not only a man of humanity, of good morals, and commisera- 
tion, but likewise a highwayman, a house-breaker, or a mur- 
derer, could feel anxieties on such an occasion." 

Amongst those monsters, who are pointed out by the histo- 
rian to the just detestation of all mankind, we meet with in- 
stances of casual sympathy and sensibility ; even their vices 
frequently prove to us, that they never became utterly indif- 
ferent to the opinion and feelings of their fellow-creatures* 
The dissimulation, jealousy, suspicion, and cruelty of Tibe- 
rius, originated, perhaps, more in his anxiety about the opin- 
ions which were formed of his character, than in his fears of 
any conspiracies against his life. The '■'•judge within" the 
habit of viewing his own conduct in the light in which it was be- 
held by the impartial spectator, prompted him to new crimes ; 
and thus his unextinguished sympathy, and his exasperated 
sensibility, drove him to excesses, from which a more torpid 
temperament might have preserved him.* When, upon his 
presenting the sons of Germanicus to the senate, Tiberius be- 
held the tenderness with which these young men were received, 
he w r as moved to such an agony of jealousy, as instantly to 
beseech the senate that he might resign the empire. We 
cannot attribute either to policy or fear, this strong emotion, 
because we know that the senate was at this time absolutely 
at the disposal of Tiberius, and the lives of the sons of Ger- 
manicus depended upon his pleasure. 

The desire to excel, according to " Smith's Theory of 
Moral Sentiments," is to be resolved principally into our love 
of the sympathy of our fellow-creatures. We wish for their 
sympathy, either in our success, or in the pleasure we feel in 
superiority. The desire for this refined modification of sym- 
pathy, may be the motive of good and great actions ; but it 
cannot be trusted as a moral principle. Nero's love of sym- 
pathy, made him anxious to be applauded on the stage as a 
fiddler and a buffoon. Tiberius banished one of his philoso- 
phic courtiers, and persecuted him till the unfortunate man 
laid violent hands upon himself, merely because he had dis- 
covered that the emperor read books in the morning to 
prepare himself with questions for his literary society at 
night. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, sued in the most 



See Smith. 



174 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

abject manner for an Olympic crown, and sent a critic to the 
gallies for finding fault with his verses. Had not these men 
a sufficient degree of sensibility to praise, and more than a suf- 
ficient desire for the sympathy of their fellow-creatures ? 

It is not from any perverse love of sophistry; that the word 
sensibility has been used in these instances instead of irrita- 
bility, which seems better to characterize the temper of a Di- 
onysius, or a Tiberius ; but, in fact, irritability, in common 
language, merely denotes an excessive or ill-governed degree 
of sensibility. The point of excess must be marked : sympa- 
thy must be regulated by education, and consequently the 
methods of directing sensibility to useful and amiable pur- 
poses, must be anxiously studied by all who wish either for 
the happiness or virtue of their pupils. 

Long before children can understand reasoning, they can 
feel sympathy ; during this early period of their education, 
example and habit, slight external circumstances, and the 
propensity to imitation, govern their thoughts and actions. 
Imitation is the involuntary effect of sympathy in children; 
hence those who have the most sympathy, are most liable to 
be improved or injured by early examples. Examples of the 
malevolent passions, should therefore be most carefully ex- 
cluded from the sight of those who have yet no choice in their 
sympathy ; expressions of kindness and affection in the coun- 
tenance, the voice, the actions, of all who approach, and of all 
who have the care of infants, are not only immediately and 
evidently agreeable to the children, but ought also to be used 
as the best possible means of exciting benevolent sympathies in 
their mind. Children, who habitually meet with kindness, 
habitually feel complacency ; that species of instinctive, or 
rather of associated affection, which always rises in the mind 
from the recollection of past pleasures, is immediately excited 
in such children by the sight of their parents. By an easy 
transition of ideas, they expect the same benevolence, even 
from strangers, which they have experienced from their 
friends, and their sympathy naturally prepares them to wish 
for society ; this wish is often improperly indulged. 

At the age when children begin to unfold their ideas, and 
to express their thoughts in words, they are such interesting 
and entertaining companions, that they attract a large portion 
of our daily attention : we listen eagerly to their simple ob- 
servations ; we enter into their young astonishment at every 
new object; we are delighted to watch all their emotions; 
we help them with words to express their ideas ; we anxiously 
endeavour to understand their imperfect reasonings, and are 
pleased to find, or put them in the right. This season of uni- 
versal smiles and courtesy, is delightful to children whilst it 
lasts, but it soon passes away ; they soon speak without ex- 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 175 

citing any astonishment, and instead of meeting with admira- 
tion for every attempt to express an idea, they are soon re- 
pulsed for troublesome volubility ; even when they talk sense, 
they are suffered to talk unheard, or else they are checked 
for unbecoming presumption. Children feel this change in 
public opinion and manners most severely ; they are not sen- 
sible of any change in themselves, except, perhaps, they are 
conscious of having improved both in sense and language. 
This unmerited loss of their late gratuitous allowance of sym- 
pathy, usually operates unfavourably upon the temper of the 
sufferers ; they become shy and silent, and reserved, if not 
sullen 5 they withdraw from our capricious society, and they 
endeavour to console themselves with other pleasures. It is 
difficult to them to feel contented with their own little occupa- 
tions and amusements, for want of the spectators and the au- 
dience which used to be at their command. Children of a 
timid temper, or of an indolent disposition, are quite dispirited 
and bereft of all energy in these circumstances; others, with 
greater vivacity, and more voluntary exertion, endeavour to 
supply the loss of universal sympathy, by the invention of in- 
dependent occupations ; but they feel anger and indignation, 
when they are not rewarded with any smiles or any praise 
for their "virtuous toil." They naturally seek for new com- 
panions, either amongst children of their own age, or amongst 
complaisant servants. Immediately all the business of educa- 
tion is at a stand ; for neither these servants, nor these play- 
fellows, are capable of becoming their instructers ; nor can 
tutors hope to succeed, who have transferred their power over 
the pleasures, and consequently over the affections of their 
pupils. Sympathy now becomes the declared enemy of all 
the constituted authorities. What chance is there of obedi- 
ence or of happiness, under such a government ? 

Would it not be more prudent to prevent, than to complain 
of these evils ? Sympathy is our first, best friend, in educa- 
tion, and by judicious management, might long continue our 
faithful ally. 

Instead of lavishing our smiles and our attention upon young 
children for a short period, just at that age when they are 
amusing playthings, should we not do more wisely if we re- 
served some portion of our kindness a few years longer ? By 
a proper economy, our sympathy may last for many years, and 
may continually contribute to the most useful purposes. In- 
stead of accustoming our pupils early to such a degree of our 
attention as cannot be supported long on our parts, we should 
rather suffer them to feel a little ennui, at that age when they 
can have but few independent or useful occupations. We 
should employ ourselves in our usual manner, and converse, 
without allowing children to interrupt us with frivolous prat- 



176 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

tie ; but whenever they ask sensible questions, make just ob- 
servations, or show a disposition to acquire knowledge, we 
should assist and encourage them with praise and affection ; 
gradually as they become capable of taking any part in con- 
versation, they should be admitted into society, and they will 
learn of themselves, or we may teach them, that useful and 
agreeable qualities are those by which they must secure the 
pleasures of sympathy. Esteem, being associated with 
sympathy, will increase its value, and this connexion should 
be made as soon, and kept as sacred, in the mind as pos- 
sible. 

With respect to the sympathy which children feel for each 
other, it must be carefully managed, or it will counteract, in- 
stead of assisting us, in education. It is natural, that those 
who are placed nearly in the same circumstances, should feel 
alike, and sympathize with one another ; but children feel 
only for the present ; they have few ideas of the future ; and 
consequently all that they can desire, either for themselves, 
or for their companions, is what will immediately please. Ed- 
ucation looks to the future, and frequently we must ensure fu- 
ture advantage, even at the expense of present pain or restraint. 
The companion and the tutor then, supposing each to be 
equally good and equally kind, must command, in a very dif- 
ferent degree, the sympathy of the child. It may, notwith- 
standing, be questioned, whether those who are constant com- 
panions in their idle hours, when they are very young, are 
likely to be either as fond of one another when they grow up, 
or even as happy whilst they are children, as those are who 
spend less time together. Whenever the humours, interests, 
and passions of others cross our own, there is an end of sym- 
pathy, and this happens almost every hour in the day with 
children ; it is generally supposed, that they learn to live in 
friendship with each other, and to bear with one another's 
little faults habitually ; that they even reciprocally cure these 
faults, and learn, by experience, those principles of honour 
and justice on which society depends. We may be deceived 
in this reasoning by a false analogy. 

We call the society of children, society in miniature ; the 
proportions of the miniature are so much altered, that it is by 
no means an accurate resemblance of that which exists in the 
civilized world. Amongst children of different ages, strength, 
and talents, there must always be tyranny, injustice, and that 
worst species of inequality, which arises from superior force 
on the one side, and abject timidity on the other. Of this, 
the spectators of juvenile disputes and quarrels are sometimes 
sensible, and they hastily interfere and endeavour to part the 
combatants, by pronouncing certain moral sentences, such as, 
" Good boys never quarrel ; brothers must love and help one 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 177 

another." But these sentences seldom operate as a charm 
upon the angry passions ; the parties concerned, hearing it 
asserted that they must love one another, at the very instant 
when they happen to feel that they cannot, are still further 
exasperated, and they stand at bay, sullen in hatred, or ap- 
proach hypocritical in reconciliation. It is more easy to pre- 
vent occasions of dispute, than to remedy the bad consequen- 
ces which petty altercations produce. Young children should 
be kept asunder at all times, and in all situations, in which it 
is necessary, or probable, that their appetites and passions 
should be in direct competition. Two hungry children, with 
their eager eyes fixed upon one and the same basin of bread 
and milk, do not sympathize with each other, though they 
have the same sensations ; each perceives, that if the other 
eats the bread and milk, he cannot eat it. Hunger is more 
powerful than sympathy ; but satisfy the hunger of one of the 
parties, and immediately he will begin to feel for his com- 
panion, and will wish that his hunger should also be satisfied. 
Even Mr. Barnet, the epicure, who is so well described in 
Moore's excellent novel,* after he has crammed himself to the 
throat, asks his wife to " try to eat a bit." Intelligent pre- 
ceptors will apply the instance of the basin of bread and 
milk, in a variety of apparently dissimilar circumstances. 

We may observe, that the more quickly children reason, 
the sooner they discover how far their interests are any ways 
incompatible with the interests of their companions. The 
more readily a boy calculates, the sooner he will perceive, 
that if he were to share his basin of bread and milk equally 
with a dozen of his companions, his own portion must be 
small. The accuracy of his mental division would prevent 
him from offering to part with that share which, perhaps, a 
more ignorant accountant would be ready to surrender at 
once, without being on that account more generous. Chil- 
dren, who are accurate observers of the countenance, and 
who have a superior degree of penetration, discover very 
early the symptoms of displeasure, or of affection, in their 
friends ; they also perceive quickly the dangers of rivalship 
from their companions. If experience convinces them, that 
they must lose in proportion as their companions gain, either 
in fame or in favour, they will necessarily dislike them as ri- 
vals ; their hatred will be as vehement, as their love of praise 
and affection is ardent. Thus children, who have the most 
lively sympathy, are, unless they be judiciously educated, the 
most in danger of feeling early the malevolent passions of 



* Edward, 
23 



178 PttACTICAL EDUCATION. 

jealousy and envy. It is inhuman, and in every point of 
view unjustifiable in us, to excite these painful feelings in 
children, as we too often do, by the careless or partial dis- 
tribution of affection and applause. Exact justice will best 
prevent jealousy ; each individual submits to justice, because 
each, in turn, feels the benefit of its protection. Some pre- 
ceptors, with benevolent intentions, labour to preserve a per- 
fect equality amongst their pupils, and, from the fear of ex- 
citing envy in those who are inferior, avoid uttering any en- 
comiums upon superior talents and merit. This management 
seldom succeeds; the truth cannot be concealed; those who 
feel their own superiority, make painful reflections upon the 
injustice done to them by the policy of their tutors ; those 
who are sensible of their own inferiority, are not comforted 
by the courtesy and humiliating forbearance with which they 
are treated. It is, therefore, best to speak the plain truth ; 
to give to all their due share of affection and applause : at 
the same time, we should avoid blaming one child at the mo- 
ment when w r e praise another : we should never put our pu- 
pils in contrast with one another ; nor yet should we deceive 
them as to their respective excellencies and defects. Our 
comparison should rather be made between what the pupil 
has been, and what he is, than between what he is, and what 
any body else is not.* By this style of praise we may in- 
duce children to become emulous of their former selves, in- 
stead of being envious of their competitors. Without deceit 
or affectation, we may also take care to associate general 
pleasure in a family with particular commendations; thus, if 
one boy is remarkable for prudence, and another for gene- 
rosity, we should not praise the generosity of the- one at the 
expense of the prudence of the other, but we should give to 
each virtue its just measure of applause. If one girl sings, 
and another draws, remarkably well, we may show that we 
are pleased with both agreeable accomplishments, without 
bringing them into comparison. Nor is it necessary that we 
should be in a desperate hurry to balance the separate de- 
grees of praise which we distribute exactly at the same mo- 
ment, because if children are sure that the reward of their 
industry and ingenuity is secured by our justice, they will 
trust to us, though that reward may be for a few hours de- 
layed. It is only where workmen have no confidence in the 
integrity or punctuality of their masters, that they are impa- 
tient of any accidental delay in the payment of their wages. 

With the precautions which have been mentioned, w 7 e may 
hope to see children grow up in real friendship together. 



* V. Rousseau and Williams. 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 179 

The whole sum of their pleasure is much increased by mutual 
sympathy. This happy moral truth, upon which so many of 
our virtues depend, should be impressed upon the mind; it 
should be clearly demonstrated to the reason ; it should not 
be repeated as an a priori, sentimental assertion. 

Those who have observed the sudden, violent, and supris- 
ing effects of emulation in public schools, will regret the want 
of this porver in the intellectual education of their pupils at 
home. Even the acquisition of talents and knowledge ought, 
however, to be but a secondary consideration, subordinate to 
the general happiness of our pupils. If we could have supe- 
rior knowledge, upon condition that we should have a malevo- 
lent disposition, and an irritable temper, should we, setting 
every other moral consideration aside, be willing to make the 
purchase at such a price ? Let any person, desirous to see a 
striking picture of the effects of scholastic competition upon 
the moral character, look at the life of that wonder of his 
age, the celebrated Abeillard. As the taste and manners of 
the present times are so different from those of the age in 
which he lived, we see without any species of deception, the 
real value of the learning in which he excelled, and we can 
judge both of his acquirements, and of his character, without 
prejudice. We see him goaded on by rivalship, and literary 
ambition, to astonishing exertions at one time ; at another, 
torpid in monkish indolence : at one time, we see him intoxi- 
cated with adulation ; at another, listless, desponding, abject, 
incapable of maintaining his own self-approbation without the 
suffrages of those whom he despised. If his biographer* does 
him justice, a more selfish, irritable, contemptible, miserable 
being, than the learned Abeillard, could scarcely exist, 

A philosopher,! who, if we might judge of him by the be- 
nignity of his writings, was surely of a most amiable and hap- 
py temper, has yet left us a melancholy and discouraging his- 
tory of the unsociable condition of men of superior knowledge 
and abilities. He supposes that those who have devoted 
much time to the cultivation of their understandings, have ha- 
bitually less sympathy, or less exercise for their sympathy, 
than those who live less abstracted from the world ; that, con- 
sequently, " all their social, and all their public affections, 
lose their natural warmth and vigour," whilst their selfish 
passions are cherished and strengthened, being kept in con- 
stant play by literary rivalship. It is to be hoped, that there 
are men of the most extensive learning and genius, now liv- 



* Berington. See his Life of Abeillard. 

fDr. John Gregory. Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man 
with those of the Animal World. See vol. ii. of Works,, from page 100 to 114. 



180 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ing, who could, from their own experience, assure us that 
those are obsolete observations, no longer applicable to 
modern human nature. At all events, we, who refer so much 
to education, are hopefully of opinion, that education can pre- 
vent these evils, in common with almost all the other evils of 
life. It would be an error, fatal to all improvement, to be- 
lieve that the cultivation of the understanding, impedes the 
exercise of the social affections. Obviously, a man, who se- 
cludes himself from the world, and whose whole life is occu- 
pied with abstract studies, cannot enjoy any pleasure from 
his social affections ; his admiration of the dead, is so con- 
stant, that he has no time to feel any sympathy with the liv- 
ing. An individual of this ruminating species, is humorous- 
ly delineated in Mrs. D'Arblay's Camilla. Men, who are 
compelled to unrelenting labour, whether by avarice, or by 
literary ambition, are equally to be pitied. They are not- 
models for imitation ; they sacrifice their happiness to some 
strong passion or interest. Without this ascetic abstinence 
from the domestic and social pleasures of life, surely persons 
may cultivate their understandings, and acquire, even by 
mixing with their fellow-creatures, a variety of useful know- 
ledge. 

An ingenious theory* supposes the exercise of any of our 
faculties is always attended with pleasure, which lasts as long 
as that exercise can be continued without fatigue. This pleas- 
ure, arising from the due exercise of our mental powers, the 
author of this theory maintains to be the foundation of our 
most agreeable sentiments. If there be any truth in these 
ideas, of how many agreeable sentiments must a man of sense 
be capable ! The pleasures of society must to him increase 
in an almost incalculable proportion ; because, in conversation, 
his faculties can never want subjects on which they may be 
amply exercised. The dearth of conversation, which every 
body may have felt in certain company, is always attended 
with mournful countenances, and every symptom of ennui. 
Indeed, without the pleasures of conversation, society is reduc- 
ed to meetings of people, who assemble to eat and drink, to 
show their fine clothes, to weary and to hate one another. 
The sympathy of bon vivants is, it must be acknowledged, 
very lively and sincere towards each other ; but this can last 
only during the hour of dinner, unless they revive p and pro- 
long, by the powers of imagination, the memory of the feast. 
Some foreign traveller! tells us, that " every year at Naples, 
an officer of the police goes through the city, attended by a 



* Vernet's Throne des Sentiments Agreables. 
f V. Varieties of Literature, vol. i. 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 181 

trumpeter, who proclaims in all the squares and cross-ways, 
how many thousand oxen, calves, lambs, hogs, &x. the 
Neapolitans have had the honour of eating in the course of 
the year. The people all listen with extreme attention to this 
proclamation, and are immoderately delighted at the huge 
amount. 

A degree, and scarcely one degree, above the brute sympa- 
thy of good eaters, is that gregarious propensity which is 
sometimes honoured with the name of sociability. The cur- 
rent sympathy, or appearance of sympathy, which is to be 
found amongst the idle and frivolous in fashionable life, is 
wholly unconnected with even the idea of esteem. It is there- 
fore pernicious to all who partake of it ; it excites to no great 
exertions; it rewards neither useful nor amiable qualities : on 
the contrary, it is to be obtained by vice, rather than by vir- 
tue ; by folly much more readily than by wisdom. It is the mere 
follower of fashion, and of dissipation, and it keeps those in 
humour and countenance, who ought to hear the voice of pub- 
lic reproach, and who might be roused by the fear of disgrace 
or the feelings of shame, to exertions which should justly en- 
title them to the approbation and affection of honourable 
friends. 

Young people, who are early in life content with this conviv- 
ial sympathy, may, in the common phrase, become very good 
pleasant companions ; but there is little chance that they should 
ever become any thing more, and there is great danger that 
they may be led into any degree of folly, extravagance, or 
vice, to which fashion, and the voice of numbers invite. It 
sometimes happens, that men of superior abilities, have such 
an indiscriminate love of applause and sympathy, that they 
reduce themselves to the standard of all their casual compan- 
ions, and vary their objects of ambition with the opinion of 
the silly people with whom they chance to associate. In pub- 
lic life, party spirit becomes the ruling principle of men of this 
character ; in private life, they are addicted to clubs, and as- 
sociations of all sorts, in which the contagion of sympathy, 
has a power which the sober influence of reason seldom ven- 
tures to correct. The waste of talents, and the total loss of 
principle, to which this indiscriminate love of sympathy leads, 
should warn us to guard against its influence by early educa- 
tion. The gregarious propensity in childhood, should not be 
indulged without precautions : unless their companions are 
well educated, we can never be reasonably secure of the con- 
duct or happiness of our pupils : from sympathy, they catch 
all the wishes, tastes, and ideas of those with whom they asso- 
ciate ; and what is still worse, they acquire the dangerous 
habits of resting upon the support, and of wanting the stimulus 
of numbers. It is, surely, far more prudent to let children feel a 



182 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

little ennui, from the want of occupation and of company, than to 
purchase for them the juvenile pleasures of society at the ex- 
pense of their future happiness. Childhood, as a part of our 
existence, ought to have as great a share of happiness as it can 
enjoy compatibly -with the advantage of the other seasons of 
life. By this principle, we should be guided in all which we 
allow, and in all which we refuse, to children ; by this rule, 
we may avoid unnecessary severity, and pernicious indul- 
gence. 

As young people gradually acquire knowledge, they will 
learn to converse, and when they have the habits of convers- 
ing rationally, they will not desire companions who can only 
chatter. They will prefer the company of friends, who can 
sympathize in their occupations, to the presence of ignorant 
idlers, who can fill up the void of ideas with nonsense and 
noise. Some people have a notion that the understanding and 
the heart are not to be educated at the same time ; but the 
very reverse of this is, perhaps, true ; neither can be brought 
to any perfection, unless both are cultivated together. 

We should not, therefore, expect premature virtues. Du- 
ring childhood, there occur but few opportunities of exerting 
the virtues which are recommended in books, such as humani- 
ty and generosity. 

The humanity of children cannot, perhaps, properly be said 
to be exercised upon animals; they are frequently extremely 
fond of animals, but they are not always equable in their 
fondness ; they sometimes treat their favourites with that ca- 
price which favourites are doomed to experience; this ca- 
price degenerates into cruelty, if it is resented by the sufferer. 
We must not depend merely upon the natural feelings of com- 
passion, as preservatives against cruelty ; the instinctive feel- 
ings of compassion, are strong amongst uneducated people ; 
yet these do not restrain them from acts of cruelty. They 
take delight, it has often been observed, in all tragical, san- 
guinary spectacles, because these excite emotion, and relieve 
them from the listless state in which their days usually pass. 
It is the same with all persons, in all ranks of life, whose 
minds are uncultivated.* Until young people have fixed hab- 
its of benevolence, and a taste for occupation, perhaps it is not 
prudent to trust them with the care or protection of animals. 
Even when they are enthusiastically fond of them, they can- 
not, by their utmost ingenuity, make the animals so happy in 
a state of captivity as they would be in a state of liberty. 



* Can it be true, that an English nobleman, in the 18th century, won a bet 
by procuring a man to eat a cat alive ? 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 1 8S 

They are apt to insist upon doing animals good against their 
will, and they are often unjust in the defence of their favour- 
ites. A boy of seven years old, once knocked down his sister, 
to prevent her crushing his caterpillar.! 

Children should not be taught to confine their benevolence 
to those animals which are thought beautiful ; the fear and 
disgust which we express at the sight of certain unfortu- 
nate animals, whom we are pleased to call ugly and shocking, 
are observed by children, and these associations lead to cru- 
elty. If we do not prejudice our pupils by foolish exclama- 
tions ; if they do not, from sympathy, catch our absurd an- 
tipathies, their benevolence towards the animal world, will 
not be illiberally confined to favourite lap-dogs and singing- 
birds. From association, most people think that frogs are 

ugly animals. L , a boy between five and six years old, 

once begged his mother to come out to look at a beautiful ani- 
mal which he had just found ; she was rather surprised to find 
that this beautiful creature was a frog. 

If children never see others torment animals, they will not 
think that cruelty can be an amusement ; but they may be 
provoked to revenge the pain which is inflicted upon them ; 
and therefore we should take care not to put children in sit- 
uations where they are liable to be hurt or terrified by ani- 
mals. Could we possibly expect that Gulliver should love 
the Brobdignagian wasp that buzzed round his cake, and pre- 
vented him from eating his breakfast 1 Could we expect that 
Gulliver should be ever reconciled to the rat against whom he 
was obliged to draw his sword? Many animals are, to chil- 
dren, what the wasp and the rat were to Gulliver. Put bod- 
ily fear out of the case, it required all uncle Toby's benev- 
olence to bear the buzzing of a gnat while he was eating his 
dinner. Children, even when they have no cause to be afraid 
of animals, are sometimes in situations to be provoked by 
them ; and the nice casuist will find it difficult to do strict jus- 
tice upon the offended and the offenders. 

October 2, 1796. S , nine years old, took care of his 

brother H 's hot-bed for some time, when H — — was ab- 
sent from home. He was extremely anxious about his 
charge ; he took one of his sisters to look at the hot-bed, 
showed her a hole were the mice came in, and expressed 
great hatred against the whole race. He the same day ask- 
ed his mother for a bait for the mouse-trap ; his mother refu- 
sed to give him one, telling him that she did not wish he should 
learn to kill animals. How good nature sometimes leads to 



t Se.e Moore's Edward, for the boy and larks, an excellent story for chil ;! 
dren. 



184 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

the opposite feeling ! S 's love for his brother's cucumbers 

made him imagine, and compass the death of the mice. Chil- 
dren should be protected against animals, which we do not 
wish that they should hate : if cats scratch them, and dogs 
bite them, and mice devour the fruits of their industry, chil- 
dren must consider these animals as enemies ; they cannot 
love them, and they may learn the habit of revenge, from be- 
ing exposed to their insults and depredations. Pythagoras 
himself would have insisted upon his exclusive right to the 
vegetables on which he was to subsist, especially if he had 
raised them by his own care and industry. Buffbn,* notwith- 
standing all his benevolent philosophy, can scarcely speak 
with patience of his enemies the field mice ; who, when he 
was trying experiments upon the culture of forest trees, tormen- 
ted him perpetually by their insatiable love of acorns. " / 
was terrified" says he, " at the discovery of half a bushel, and 
often a whole bushel, of acorns in each of the holes inhabited 
by these little animals ; they had collected these acorns for 
their winter provision." The philosopher gave orders imme- 
diately for the erection of a great number of traps, and snares 
baited with broiled nuts; in less than three weeks nearly 
three hundred field mice were killed or taken prisoners. Man- 
kind are obliged to carry on a defensive war with the animal 
world. " Eat or be eaten," says Doctor Darwin, is the great 
law of nature. It is fortunate for us that there are butchers 
by profession in the world, and rat-catchers and cats, other- 
wise our habits of benevolence and sympathy would be ut- 
terly destroyed. Children, though they must perceive the 
necessity for destroying certain animals need not be them- 
selves executioners ; they should not conquer the natural re- 
pugnance to the sight of the struggles of pain, and the con- 
vulsions of death ; their aversion of being the cause of pain 
should be preserved, both by principle and habit. Those 
who have not been habituated to the bloody form of cruelty, 
can never fix their eye upon her without shuddering ; even 
those to whom she may have, in some instances, been early 
familiarised, recoil from her appearance in any shape to which 
they have not been accustomed. At one of the magnificent 
shows with which Pompeyt entertained the Roman people for 
five days successively, the populace enjoyed the death of 
wild beasts : five hundred lions were killed ; but, on the last 
day, when twenty elephants were put to death, the people, 
unused to the sight, and moved by the lamentable howlings 
of these animals, were seized with sudden compassion ; they 



* Mem. de l'Acad. R. for the year 1742, p. 332. 
t V. Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. i. page 474. 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 185 

execrated Pompey himself for being the author of so much 
cruelty. 

Charity for the poor is often inculcated in books for chil- 
dren ; but how is this virtue to be actually brought into prac- 
tice in childhood ? Without proper objects of charity are se- 
lected by the parents, children have no opportunities of dis* 
covering them ; they have not sufficient knowledge of the 
world to distinguish truth from falsehood in the complaints of 
the distressed : nor have they sufficiently enlarged views to 
discern the best means of doing good to their fellow-crea- 
tures. They may give away money to the poor, but they do 
not always feel the value of what they give : they give coun- 
ters : supplied with all the necessaries and luxuries of life, 
they have no use for money ; they feel no privation ; they 
make no sacrifice in giving money away, or at least, none wor- 
thy to be extolled as heroic. When children grow up, they 
learn the value of money ; their generosity will then cost 
them rather more effort, and yet can be rewarded only with 
the same expressions of gratitude, with the same blessings 
from the beggar, or the same applause from the spectator. 

Let us put charity out of the question, and suppose that 
the generosity of children is displayed in making presents to 
their companions, still there are difficulties. These presents 
are usually baubles, which at the best can encourage only a 
frivolous taste. But we must further consider, that even gen« 
erous children are apt to expect generosity equal to their own 
from their companions ; then come tacit or explicit compari- 
sons of the value or elegance of their respective gifts ; the 
difficult rules of exchange and barter are to be learned ; and 
nice calculations of Tare and Tret are entered into by the re- 
pentant borrowers and lenders. A sentimental, too often 
ends in a commercial intercourse ; and those who begin with 
the most munificent dispositions, sometimes end with selfish 
discontent, low cunning, or disgusting ostentation. Whoever 
has carefully attended to young makers of presents, and 
makers of bargains, will not think this account of them much 
exaggerated. 

" Then what is to be done ? How are the social affections 
to be developed ? How is the sensibility of children to be 
tried? How is the young heart to display its most amiable 
feelings ?" a sentimental preceptress will impatiently in- 
quire. 

The amiable feelings of the heart need not be displayed ; 
they may be sufficiently exercised without the stimulus either 
of our eloquence or our applause. In Madame de Silleri's ac- 
count of the education of the children of the Duke of Orleans^ 
there appears rather too much sentimental artifice and man- 
24 



186 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

agement. When the Duchess of Orleans was ill, the children 
were instructed to write " charming notes" from day to day, 
and from hour to hour, to inquire how she did. Once when 
a servant was going from Saint Leu to Paris, Madame de Sil- 
leri asked her pupils if they had any commissions ; the little 
Duke de Chartres says yes, and gave a message about a bird- 
cage, but he did not recollect to write to his mother, till some- 
body whispered to him that he had forgotten it. Madame de 
Silleri calls this childish forgetfulness a " heinous offence ;" 
but was not it very natural, that the boy should think of his 
bird-cage ? and what mother would wish that her children 
should have it put in their head to inquire after her health in 
the complimentary style ? Another time, Madame de Silleri 
is displeased with her pupils, because they did not show 
sufficient sympathy and concern for her when she had a 
headache or sore throat. The exact number of messages 
which, consistently with the strict duties of friendship, they 
ought to have sent, are upon another occasion prescribed. 

" I had yesterday afternoon a violent attack of the cholic, 
and you discovered the greatest sensibility. By the journal 
of M. le Brun, I find it was the Duke de Montpensier who 
thought this morning of writing to inquire how I did. You 
left me yesterday in a very calm state, and there was no rea- 
son for anxiety ; but, consistently with the strict duties of 
friendship, you ought to have given orders before you went to 
bed, for inquiries to be made at eight o'clock in the morning, 
to know whether I had had any return of my complaint dur- 
ing the night; and you should again have sent at ten,/ to 
learn from myself, the instant I awoke, the exact state of 
my health. Such are the benevolent and tender cares which 
a lively and sincere friendship dictates. You must accustom 
yourselves to the observance of them, if you wish to be be- 
loved." 

Another day Madame de Silleri told the Duke de Chartres, 
that he had a very idiotic appearance, because, when he 
went to see his mother, his attention was taken up by two 
parroquets which happened to be in the room. All these re- 
proaches and documents could not, we should apprehend, 
tend to increase the real sensibility and affection of children. 
Gratitude is one of the most certain, but one of the latest, re- 
wards, which preceptors and parents should expect from 
their pupils. Those who are too impatient to wait for the 
gradual development of the affections, will obtain from their 
children, ' instead of warm, genuine, enlightened gratitude, 
nothing but the expression of cold, constrained, stupid hy- 
pocrisy. During the process of education, a child cannot 
perceive its ultimate end ; how can he judge whether the 
means employed by his parents, are well adapted to effect 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 18? 

their purposes ? Moments of restraint and of privation, or, 
perhaps, of positive pain, must be endured by children under 
the mildest system of education : they must, therefore, per- 
ceive, that their parents are the immediate cause of some 
evils to them ; the remote good is beyond their view. And 
can we expect from an infant the systematic resignation of an 
optimist ? Belief upon trust, is very different from that which 
arises from experience ; and no one, who understands the 
human heart, will expect incompatible feelings : in the mind 
of a child, the feeling of present pain is incompatible with 
gratitude. Mrs. Macauley mentions a striking instance of ex- 
torted gratitude. A poor child, who had been taught to re- 
turn thanks for every thing, had a bitter medicine given to 
her ; when she had drank it, she courtesied, and said, " Thank 
you for my good stuff." There was a mistake in the medicine, 
and the child died the next morning. 

Children who are not sentimentally educated, often offend 
by their simplicity, and frequently disgust people of impatient 
feelings, by their apparent indifference to things which are 
expected to touch their sensibility. Let us be content with 
nature, or rather let us never exchange simplicity for affecta- 
tion. Nothing hurts young people more than to be watched 
continually about their feelings, to have their countenances 
scrutinized, and the degrees of their sensibility measured by 
the surveying eye of the unmerciful spectator. Under the 
constraint of such examinations, they can think of nothing, 
but that they are looked at, and feel nothing but shame or 
apprehension : they are afraid to lay their minds open, lest 
they should be convicted of some deficiency of feeling. On 
the contrary, children who are not in dread of this sentimen- 
tal inquisition, speak their minds, the truth, and the whole 
truth, without effort or disguise : they lay open their hearts, 
and tell their thoughts as they arise, with simplicity that 
would not fear to enter even " The palace of Truth."* 

A little girl, Ho , who was not quite four years old, 

asked her mother to give her a plaything : one of her sisters 
had just before asked for the same thing. "I cannot give it 
to you both," said the mother. 

Ho . No, but I wish you to give it to me, and not to 

E . 



Mother. Don't you wish your sister to have what she 
wants ? 

Ho . Mother, if I say that I don't wish so, will you 

give it to me ? 

* V. Le Palais de la Verite. — Madame de Genlis Veillees du Chateau. 



188 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Perhaps this naivete might have displeased some scrupulous 
admirers of politeness, who could not discover in it symptoms 
of that independent simplicity of character, for which the 
child who made this speech was distinguished. 

" Do you always love me !" said a mother to her son, who 
■was about four years old. 

" Always," said the child, " except when I am asleep." 

Mother. " And why do you not love me when you are 
asleep ?" 

Son. " Because I do not think of you then." 

This sensible answer showed, that the boy reflected accu- 
rately upon his own feelings, and a judicious parent must 
consequently have a sober certainty of his affection. The 
thoughtless caresses of children who are never accustomed to 
reason, are lavished alike upon strangers and friends, and 
their fondness of to-day may, without any reasonable cause, 
become aversion by to-morrow. 

Children are often asked to tell which of their friends they 
love the best, but they are seldom required to assign any reason 
for their choice. It is not prudent to question them frequent- 
ly about their own feelings ; but whenever they express any 
decided preference, we should endeavour to lead, not to drive 
them to reflect upon the reasons for their affection. They 
will probably at first mention some particular instance of kind- 
ness, which they have lately received from the person whom 
they prefer. " I like such a person because he mended my 
top." " I like such another because he took me out to walk 
with him and let me gather flowers." By degrees we may 
teach children to generalize their ideas, and to perceive that 
they like people for being either useful or agreeable. 

The desire to return kindness by kindness, arises very ear- 
ly in the mind ; and the hope of conciliating the good will of 
the powerful beings by whom they are surrounded, is one of 
the first wishes that appears in the minds of intelligent and 
affectionate children. From this sense of mutual dependence, 
the first principles of social intercourse are deduced, and we 
may render our pupils either mean sycophants or useful and 
honourable members of society, by the methods which we 
use to direct their first efforts to please. It should be our ob- 
ject to convince them, that the exchange of mutual good of- 
fices contributes to happiness ; and whilst we connect the de- 
sire to assist others with the perception of the beneficial con- 
sequences that eventually arise to themselves, we may be 
certain that children will never become blindly selfish, or 
idly sentimental. We cannot help admiring the simplicity, 
strength of mind, and good sense, of a little girl of four years 
old, who, when she was put into a stage coach with a number 
of strangers, looked round upon them all, and, after a few 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 189 

minutes' silence, addressed them, with the imperfect articula- 
tion of infancy, in the following words : 

" If you'll be good to me, I'll be good to you." 

Whilst we were writing upon sympathy and sensibility, we 
met with the following apposite passage : 

" In 1765, I was," says M. de St. Pierre, "at Dresden, at 
a play acted at court ; it was the Pere de Famille. The 
electoress came in with one' of her daughters, who might be 
about five or six years old. An officer of the Saxon guards, 
who came with me to the play, whispered, ' That child will 
interest you as much as the play.' As soon as she was seat- 
ed, she placed both her hands on the front of the box, fixed 
her eyes upon the stage, and continued with her mouth open, 
all attention to the motions of the actors. It was truly touch- 
ing to see their different passions painted on her face as in a 
glass. There appeared in her countenance successively anx- 
iety, surprise, melancholy, and grief; at length the interest 
increasing in every scene, tears began to flow, which soon ran 
in abundance down her little cheeks ; then came agitation, 
sighs, and loud sobs; at last they were obliged to carry her 
out of the box, lest she should choak herself with crying. 
My next neighbour told me, that every time that this young 
princess came to a pathetic play, she was obliged to leave the 
house before the catastrophe." 

" 1 have seen," continues M. de St. Pierre, " instances of 
sensibility still more touching amongst the children of the 
common people, because the emotion was not here produced 
by any theatrical effect. As I was walking some years ago 
in the Pre St. Gervais, at the beginning of winter, I saw a 
poor woman lying on the ground, busied in weeding a bed of 
sorrel ; near her was a little girl of six years old at the utmost, 
standing motionless, and all purple with cold. I addressed 
myself to this woman, who appeared to be ill, and I asked her 
what was the matter with her. Sir, said she, for these three 
months I have suffered terribly from the rheumatism, but my ill- 
ness troubles me less than this child, she never will leave me; 
if I say to her, Thou art quite frozen, go and warm thyself 
in the house she answers me, Alas ! mamma, if I leave you, 
you'll certainly fall ill again !" 

" Another time, being at Marly, I went to see, in the groves 
of that magnificent park, that charming group of children 
who are feeding with vine leaves and grapes a goat who 
seems to be playing with them. Near this spot is an open 
summer house, where. Louis XV. on fine days, used sometimes 
to take refreshment. As it was showery weather, 1 went to 
take shelter for a few minutes. I found there three children, 
who were much more interesting than children of marble. 
They were two little girls, very pretty, and very busily em- 



1 90 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ployed in picking up all round the summer house dry sticks, 
which they put into a sort of wallet which was lying upon the 
king's table, whilst a little ill clothed thin boy was devouring 
a bit of bread in one corner of the room. 1 asked the tallest 
of the children, who appeared to be between eight and nine 
years old, what she meant to do with the wood which she was 
gathering together with so much eagerness. She answered, 
' Sir, you see that little boy, he is very unhappy. He has a 
mother-in-law' (Why always a mother-in-law?) 'He has a 
mother-in-law, who sends him all day long to look for wood ; 
when he does not bring any home, he is beaten ; when he has 
got any, the Swiss who stands at the entrance of the park 
takes it all away from him, and keeps it for himself. The 
boy is almost starved with hunger, and we have given him 
our breakfast.' After having said these words, she and her 
companion finished filling the little wallet, they packed it upon 
the boy's shoulders, and they ran before their unfortunate 
friend to see that he might pass in safety." 

We have read these three anecdotes to several children, 
and have found that the active friends of the little wood-cut- 
ter were the most admired. It is probable, that amongst 
children who have been much praised for expressions of sen- 
sibility, the young lady who wept so bitterly at the playhouse 
would be preferred ; affectionate children will like the little 
girl who stood purple with cold beside her sick mother ; but 
if they have been well educated, they will probably express 
some surprise at her motionless attitude ; they will ask why 
she did not try to help her mother to weed the bed of sorrel. 

It requires much skill and delicacy in our conduct towards 
children, to preserve a proper medium between the indulging 
and the repressing of their sensibility. We are cruel towards 
them when we suspect their genuine expressions of affection ; 
nothing hurts the temper of a generous child more than this 
species of injustice. Receive his expressions of kindness 
and gratitude with cold reserve, or a look that implies a doubt 
of his truth, and you give him so much pain, that you not on- 
ly repress, but destroy his affectionate feelings. On the con- 
trary, if you appear touched and delighted by his caresses, 
from the hope of pleasing, he will be naturally inclined to re- 
peat such demonstrations of sensibility : this repetition should 
be gently discouraged, lest it should lead to affectation. At 
the same time, though we take this precaution, we should con- 
sider, that children are not early sensible that affectation is 
either ridiculous or disgusting ; they are not conscious of doing 
any thing wrong by repeating what they have once perceiv- 
ed to be agreeable in their own, or in the manners of others. 
They frequently imitate, without any idea that imitation is 
displeasing ; their object, as Locke observes, is to please by 



SYMPATHY AND SENSIBILITY. 191 

affectation ; they only mistake the means : we should rectify 
this mistake without treating it as a crime. 

A little girl of five years stood beside her mother, observ- 
ing the distribution of a dish of strawberries, the first straw- 
berries of the year ; and seeing a number of people busily 
helping, and being helped to cream and sugar, said in a low 
voice, not meant to attract attention, " I like to see people 
helping one another." Had the child, at this instant, been 
praised for this natural expression of sympathy, the pleasure 
of praise would have been immediately substituted in her 
mind, instead of the feeling of benevolence, which was in it- 
self sufficiently agreeable ; and, perhaps, from a desire to 
please, she would, upon the next favourable occasion, have 
repeated the same sentiment ; this we should immediately 
call affectation; but how could the child foresee, that the re- 
petition of what we formerly liked, would be offensive ? We 
should not first extol sympathy, and then disdain affectation ; 
our encomiums frequently produce the faults by which we are 
disgusted. Sensibility and sympathy, when they have pro- 
per objects, and full employment, do not look for applause ; 
they are sufficiently happy in their own enjoyments. Those 
who have attempted to teach children, must have observed, 
that sympathy is immediately connected with all the imita- 
tive arts; the nature of this connexion, more especially in 
poetry and painting, has been pointed out with ingenuity and 
eloquence by those* whose excellence in these arts entitle 
their theories to our prudent attention. We shall not attempt 
to repeat ; we refer to their observations. Sufficient occupa- 
tion for sympathy may be found by cultivating the talents of 
young people. 

Without repeating here what has been said in many other 
places, it may be necessary to remind all who are concerned 
in female education, that peculiar caution is necessary to man- 
age female sensibility : to make, what is called the heart, a 
source of permanent pleasure, we must cultivate the reason- 
ing powers at the same time that we repress the enthusiasm 
of fine feeling. Women, from their situation and duties in so- 
ciety, are called upon rather for the daily exercise of quiet 
domestic virtues, than for those splendid acts of generosity, 
or those exaggerated expressions of tenderness, which are the 
characteristics of heroines in romance. Sentimental authors, 
who paint with enchanting colours all the graces and all the 
virtues in happy union, teach us to expect that this union 
should be indissoluble. Afterwards, from the natural influ- 



* Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses. Dr. Darwin's Critical Interludes in 
the Botanic Garden, and his chapter on Sympathy and Imitation in Zoonomia, 



192 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ence of association, we expect in real life to meet with virtue 
when we see grace, and we are disappointed, almost disgust- 
ed, when we find virtue unadorned. This false association 
has a double effect upon the conduct of women ; it prepares 
them to be pleased, and it excites them to endeavour to please 
by adventitious charms, rather than by those qualities which 
merit esteem. Women, who have been much addicted to 
common novel-reading, are always acting in imitation of some 
Jemima, or Almeria, who never existed, and they perpetually 
mistake plain William and Thomas for " My Beverly .'" 
They have another peculiar misfortune ; they require contin- 
ual great emotions to keep them in tolerable humour with 
themselves ; they must have tears in their eyes, or they are 
apprehensive that their hearts are growing hard. They have 
accustomed themselves to such violent stimulus, that they 
cannot endure the languor to which they are subject in the in- 
tervals of delirium. Pink appears pale to the eye that is 
used to scarlet ; and common food is insipid to the taste which 
has been vitiated by the high seasonings of art. 

A celebrated French actress, in the wane of her charms, 
and who, for that reason, began to feel weary of the world, 
exclaimed, whilst she was recounting what she had suffered 
from a faithless lover, " Ah ! c'etoit le bon temps, j'etois bien 
malheureuse !"* 

The happy age in which women can, with any grace or ef- 
fect, be romantically wretched, is, even with the beautiful, 
but a short season of felicity. The sentimental sorrows of 
any female mourner, of more than thirty years standing, 
command but little sympathy, and less admiration ; and what 
other consolations are suited to sentimental sorrows ? 

Women, who cultivate their reasoning powers, and who ac- 
quire tastes for science and literature, find sufficient variety 
in life, and do not require the stimulus of dissipation, or of ro- 
mance. Their sympathy and sensibility are engrossed by 
proper objects, and connected with habits of useful exertion : 
they usually feel the affection which others profess, and ac- 
tually enjoy the happiness which others describe. 



D'Alemberf 







•-v, CHAPtER^i" 

ON VANITY, PRIDE, - AND ""AMBITION. 

We shall not weary the reader by any common-place dec» 
iamations upon these moral topics. No great subtlety of dis- 
tinction is requisite to mark the differences between Vanity 
and Pride, since those differences have been pointed out by 
every moralist, who has hoped to please mankind by an ac- 
curate delineation of the failings of human nature. Whatev- 
er distinctions exist, or may be supposed to exist, between the. 
characters in which pride or vanity predominates, it will 
readily be allowed, that there is one thing in which they both 
agree — they both receive pleasure from the approbation of 
others, and from their own. We are disgusted with the vain 
man, when he intemperately indulges in praise of himself, 
however justly he may be entitled to that praise, because he 
offends against those manners which we have been accus- 
tomed to think polite, and he claims from us a greater portion 
of sympathy than we can possibly afford to give him. We 
are not, however, pleased by the negligence with which the 
proud man treats us; we do not like to see that he can exist 
in independent happiness, satisfied with a cool internal sense 
of his own merits ; he loses our sympathy, because he does 
not appear to value it. 

If we could give our pupils exactly the character we wish ? 
what degrees of vanity and pride should we desire them to 
have, and how should we regulate these passions ? Should 
we not desire, that their ambition to excel might be sufficient 
to produce the greatest possible exertions, directed to the best 
possible objects ; that their opinion of themselves should be 
strictly just, and should never be expressed in such a man- 
ner as to offend against propriety, or so as to forfeit the s}^m- 
pathy of mankind ? As to the degree of pleasure which they 
should feel from their secret reflections upon their own meri- 
torious conduct, we should certainly desire this to be as last- 
ing, and as exquisite, as possible. A considerable portion of 
the happiness of life arises from the sense of self-approbation, 
we should, therefore, secure this gratification in its utmost 
perfection. We must observe, that, however independent the 
proud man imagines himself to be of the opinions of all 
around him, he must form his judgment of his own merits 
25 



i 94 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

from some standard of comparison, by some laws drawn from 
observation of what mankind in general, or those whom he 
particularly esteems, think wise or amiable. He must be^in 
then in the same manner with the vain man, whom he despi- 
ses, by collecting the suffrages of others; if he selects, with 
perfect wisdom, the opinions which are most just,.he forms his 
character upon excellent principles ; and the more steadily he 
abides by his first views, the more he commands and obtains 
respect. But if, unfortunately, he makes a mistake at first, his 
obstinacy in error is not to be easily corrected, for he is 
not affected by the general voice of disapprobation, nor by 
the partial loss of the common pleasures of sympathy. , The 
vain man, on the contrary, is in danger, let him form his first 
notions of right and wrong ever so justly, of changing them 
when he happens to be in society with any persons who do 
not agree with him in their moral opinions, or who refuse him 
that applause which supports his own feeble self-approbation. 
We must, in education, endeavour to guard against these op- 
posite dangers ; we must enlighten the understanding, to give 
our pupils the power of forming their rules of conduct rightly, 
and we must give them sufficient strength of mind to abide by 
the principles which they have formed. When we first praise 
children, we must be careful to associate pleasure with those 
things which are really deserving of approbation. If we 
praise them for beauty, or for any happy expressions which 
entertain us, but which entertain us merely as the sprightly 
nonsense of childhood, we create vanity in the minds of our 
pupils ; we give them false ideas of merit, and, if we excite 
them to exertions, they are not exertions directed to any val- 
uable objects. Praise is a strong stimulus to industry, if it be 
properly managed ; but if we give it in too large and lavish 
quantities early in life, we shall soon find that it loses its effect, 
and yet that the patient languishes for want of the excitation 
which custom has rendered almost essential to his existence. 
We say the patient, for this mental languor may be considered 
entirely as a disease. For its cure, see the second volume of 
Zoonomia, under the article Vanity. 

Children who are habituated to the daily and hourly food 
of praise, continually require this sustenance unless they are 
attended to ; but we may gradually break bad habits. It is 
said, that some animals can supply themselves at a single 
draught with what will quench their thirst for many days. 
The human animal may, perhaps, by education, be taught 
similar foresight and abstinence in the management of his 
thirst for flattery. Young people who live with persons that 
seldom bestow praise, do not expect that stimulus, and they are 
content if they discover by certain signs, either in the counte- 
nance, manner, or tone of voice, of those whom they wish to 



VANITY, PHIDE, AND AMBITION. 195 

please, that they are tolerably well satisfied. It is of little con- 
sequence by what language approbation is conveyed, whether 
by words, or looks, or by that silence which speaks with so 
much eloquence; but it is of great importance that our pupils 
should set a high value upon the expressions of our approba- 
tion. They will value it in proportion to their esteem and 
their affection for us ; we include in the word esteem, a belief 
in our justice, and in our discernment. Expressions of affec- 
tion, associated with praise, not only increase the pleasure, 
but they alter the nature of that pleasure ; and if they gratify 
vanity, they at the same time excite some of the best feelings 
of the heart. The selfishness of vanity is corrected by this 
association ; and the two pleasures of sympathy and self- 
complacency should never, when we can avoid it, be separa- 
ted. 

Children, who are well educated, and who have acquired 
an habitual desire for the approbation of their friends, may 
continue absolutely indifferent to the praise of strangers, or of 
common acquaintance ; nor is it probable that this indifference 
should suddenly be conquered, because the greatest part of 
the pleasure of praise in their mind, depends upon the esteem 
and affection which they feel for the persons by whom it is 
bestowed. Instead of desiring that our pupils should entirely 
repress, in the company of their own family, the pleasure 
which they feel from the praise that is given to them by their 
friends, we should rather indulge them in this natural expan- 
sion of mind ; we should rather permit their youthful vanity 
to display itself openly to those whom they most love and es- 
teem, than drive them, by unreasonable severity, and a cold 
refusal of sympathy, into the society of less rigid observers. 
Those who have an aversion to vanity, will not easily bear 
with its uncultivated intemperance of tongue ; but they should 
consider, that much of what disgusts them, is owing to the 
simplicity of childhood, which must be allowed time to learn 
that respect for the feelings of others, which teaches us to re- 
strain our own : but we must not be in haste to restrain, lest 
we teach hypocrisy, instead of strength of mind, or real hu- 
mility. If we expect that children should excel, and should 
not know that they excel, we expect impossibilities ; we ex- 
pect at the same time, intelligence and stupidity. If we de- 
sire that they should be excited by praise, and that, at the 
same time, they should feel no pleasure in the applause which 
they have earned, we desire things that are incompatible. If 
we encourage children to be frank and sincere, and yet, at 
the same time, reprove them whenever they naturally express 
their opinions of themselves, or the pleasurable feelings of 
self-approbation, we shall counteract our own wishes. In- 
stead of hastily blaming children for the sincere and simple 



190 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

expression of their self-complacency, or of their desire for the 
approbation of others, we should gradually point out to them 
the truth— that those who refrain from that display of their 
own perfections which we call vanity, in fact are well repaid 
for the constraint which they put upon themselves, by the su- 
perior degree of respect and sympathy which they obtain j 
that vain people effectually counteract their own wishes, and 
meet with contempt, instead of admiration. By appealing 
constantly, when we praise, to the judgment of the pupils 
themselves, we shall at once teach them the habit of re-judg- 
ing flattery, and substitute, by insensible degrees, patient s 
steady confidence in themselves, for the wavering, weak, im- 
patience of vanity. In proportion as any one's confidence in 
himself increases, his anxiety for the applause of others dimin- 
ishes : people are very seldom vain of any accomplishments 
in which they obviously excel, but they frequently continue to 
be vain of those which are doubtful. Where mankind have 
not confirmed their own judgment, they are restless, and con- 
tinually aim either at convincing others, or themselves, that 
they are in the right. Hogarth, who invented a new and 
original manner of satirizing the follies of mankind, was not 
vain of this talent, but was extremely vain of his historical 
paintings, which were indifferent performances. Men of ac- 
knowledged literary talents, are seldom fond of amateurs; 
but, if they are but half satisfied of their own superiority, they 
collect the tribute of applause with avidity, and without dis- 
crimination or delicacy. Voltaire has been reproached with 
treating strangers rudely who went to Ferney, to see and ad- 
mire a philosopher as a prodigy. Voltaire valued his time 
more than he did this vulgar admiration ; his visiters, whose 
understanding had not gone through exactly the same pro- 
cess, who had not, probably, been satisfied with public ap- 
plause, and who set, perhaps, a considerable value upon their 
own praise, could not comprehend this appearance of indif- 
ference to admiration in Voltaire, especially when it was well 
known that he was not insensible of fame. He was, at an 
advanced age, exquisitely anxious about the fate of one of his 
tragedies ; and a public coronation at the theatre at Paris, 
had power to inebriate him at eighty-four. Those who have 
exhausted the stimulus of wine, may yet be intoxicated by 
opium. The voice of numbers appears to be sometimes ne- 
cessary to give delight to those who have been fatigued with 
the praise of individuals : but this taste for acclamation is ex- 
tremely dangerous. A multitude of good judges seldom meet 
together. 

By a slight difference in their manner of reasoning, two 
men of abilities, who set out with the same desire for fame, 
may acquire different habits of pride, or of vanity ; the one 



VANITY, PRIDE, AND AMBITION. 197 

may value the number, the other may appreciate the judg- 
ment of his admirers. There is something not only more 
wise, but more elevated, in this latter species of select tri- 
umph ; the noise is not so great ; the music is better. " If I 
listened to the music of praise,' 1 says an historian, who ob- 
viously was not insensible to its charms, " I was more serious- 
ly satisfied with the approbation of my judges. The candour 
of Dr. Robertson embraced his disciple. A letter from Mr. 
Hume overpaid the labour of ten years."* Surely no one 
can be displeased with this last generous expression of enthu- 
siasm ; we are not so well satisfied with Buffon, when he os- 
tentatiously displays the epistles of a prince and an empress.! 

Perhaps, by pointing out at proper opportunities the differ- 
ence in our feelings with respect to vulgar and refined vanity, 
we might make a useful impression upon those who have yet 
their habits to form. The conversion of vanity into pride, is 
not so difficult a process as those, who have not analyzed both, 
might, from the striking difference of their appearance, im- 
agine. By the opposite tendencies of education, opposite 
characters from the same original dispositions are produced. 
Cicero, had he been early taught to despise the applause of 
the multitude, would have turned away like the proud philo- 
sopher, who asked his friends what absurdity he had uttered, 
when he heard the populace loud in acclamations of his 
speech ; and the cynic whose vanity was seen through the 
holes in his cloak, might, perhaps, by a slight difference in 
his education, have been rendered ambitious of the Macedo- 
nian purple. 

In attempting to convert vanity into pride, we must begin 
by exercising the vain patient in forbearance of present plea- 
sure ; it is not enough to convince his understanding, that the 
advantages of proud humility are great ; he may be perfectly 
sensible of this, and may yet have so little command over 
himself, that his loquacious vanity may get the better, from 
hour to hour, of his better judgment. Habits are not to be 
instantaneously conquered by reason ; if we do not keep this 
fact in our remembrance, we shall be frequently disappointed 
in education ; and we shall, perhaps, end by thinking that 
reason can do nothing, if we begin by thinking that she can 
do every thing. We must not expect that a vain child should 
suddenly break and forget all his past associations ; but we 



* Gibbon. Memoirs of his Life and Writings, page 148. — Perhaps Gibbon 
had this excellent line of Mrs. Barbauld's in his memory : 

" And pay a life of hardships with a line." 

t See Peltier's state of Paris in the years 1795 and 1796. 



198 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

may, by a little early attention, prevent much of the trouble 
of curing, or converting, the disease of vanity. 

When children first begin to learn accomplishments, or to 
apply themselves to literature, those who instruct are apt to 
encourage them with too large a portion of praise ; the small- 
est quantity of stimulus that can produce the exertion we desire 
should be used ; if we use more, we waste our power, and in- 
jure our pupil. As soon as habit has made any exertion fa- 
miliar, and consequently easy, we may withdraw the original 
excitation, and the exertion will still continue. In learning, for 
instance,a new language, at first, whilst the pupil is in the midst 
of the difficulties of regular and irregular verbs, and when, in 
translation, a dictionary is wanted at every moment, the occupa- 
tion itself cannot be very agreeable ; but we are excited by the 
hope that our labour will every day diminish, and that we 
shall at last enjoy the entertainment of reading useful and 
agreeable books. Children, who have not learnt by experi- 
ence the pleasures of literature, cannot feel this hope as strong- 
ly as we do, we, therefore, excite them by praise ; but by 
degrees they begin to feel the pleasure of success and occu- 
pation ; when these are felt, we may and ought to withdraw 
the unnecessary excitements of praise. If we continue, we 
mislead the child's mind, and, whilst we deprive him of his nat- 
ural reward, we give him a factitious taste. When any moral 
habit is to be acquired, or when we wish that our pupil should 
cure himself of any fault, we must employ at first strong ex- 
citement, and reward with warmth and eloquence of approba- 
tion ; when the fault is conquered, when the virtue is acquired, 
the extraordinary excitement should be withdrawn, and all 
this should not be done with an air of mystery and artifice ; 
the child should know all that we do, and why we do it; the 
sooner he learns how his own mind is managed, the better — 
the sooner he will assist in his own education. 

Every body must have observed, that languor of mind suc- 
ceeds to the intoxication of vanity; if we can avoid the intox- 
ication, we shall avoid the languor. Common sayings often 
imply those sensible observations which philosophers, when 
they theorize only, express in other words. We frequently 
hear it said to a child, " Praise spoils you ; my praise did 
you harm ; you can't bear praise well ; you grow conceited ; 
ycu become idle, you are good for nothing, because you have 
been too much flattered." All these expressions show that the 
consequences of over stimulating the mind by praise, have 
been vaguely taken notice of in education ; but no general 
rules have been deduced from these observations. With 
children of different habits and temperaments, the same de- 
gree of excitement acts differently, so that it is scarcely possi- 
ble to fix upon any positive quantity fit for all dispositions — the 



VANITY, PRIDE, AND AMBITION. 199 

quantity must be relative ; but we may, perhaps, fix upon a 
criterion by which in most cases, the proportion may be as- 
certained. The golden rule,* which an eminent physician 
has given to the medical world for ascertaining the necessary 
and useful quantity of stimulus for weak and feverish pa- 
tients, may, with advantage be applied in education. When- 
ever praise produces the intoxication of vanity, it is hurtful ; 
whenever the appearances of vanity diminish in consequence 
of praise, we may be satisfied that it does good, that it increas- 
es the pupil's confidence in himself, and his strength of mind. 
We repeat, that persons who have confidence in themselves, 
may be proud, but are never vain ; that vanity cannot sup- 
port herself without the concurring flattery of others ; pride 
is satisfied with his own approbation. In the education of 
children who are more inclined to pride than to vanity, we 
must present large objects to the understanding, and large 
motives must be used to excite voluntary exertion. If the 
understanding of proud people be not early cultivated, they 
frequently fix upon some false ideas of honour or dignity, to 
which they are resolute martyrs through life. Thus the high- 
born Spaniards, if we may be allowed to reason from the imper- 
fect history of national character, — the Spaniards, who asso- 
ciate the ideas of dignity and indolence, would rather submit to 
the evils of poverty, than to the imaginary disgrace of work- 
ing for their bread. Volney, and the baron de Tott, give 
us some curious instances of the pride of the Turks, which 
prevents them from being taught any useful arts by for- 
eigners. To show how early associations are formed and 
supported by pride, we need but recollect the anecdote of the 
child mentioned by de Tott.t The baron de Tott bought a 
pretty toy for a present for a little Turkish friend, but the 
child was too proud to seem pleased with the toy ; the child's 
grandfather came into the room, saw, and was delighted with 
the toy, sat down on the carpet, and played with it until he 
broke it. We like the second childhood of the grandfather 
better than the premature old age of the grandson. 

The self-command which the fear of disgrace insures, can 
produce either great virtues, or great vices. Revenge and 
generosity are, it is said, to be found in their highest state 
amongst nations and individuals characterized by pride. The 
early objects which are associated with the idea of honour in 
the mind, are of great consequence; but it is of yet more con- 
sequence to teach proud minds early to bend to the power of 
reason, or rather to glory in being governed by reason. They 



* See Zoonomia, vol. i, p. 99. 

t V. De Tott's Memoirs, p. 138 ; a note. 



HQO PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

should be instructed, that the only possible means of maintaining 
their opinions amongst persons of sense, is to support them by 
unanswerable arguments. They should be taught that, to secure 
respect, they must deserve it ; and their self-denial, or self- 
command, should never obtain that tacit admiration which 
they most value, except where it is exerted for useful and ra- 
tional purposes. The constant custom of appealing, in the 
last resort, to their own judgment, which distinguishes the 
proud from the vain, makes it peculiarly necessary that the 
judgment, to which so much is trusted, should be highly culti- 
vated. A vain man may be tolerably well conducted in life 
by a sensible friend; a proud man ought to be able to con- 
duct himself perfectly well, because he will not accept of any 
assistance. It seems that some proud people confine their be- 
nevolent virtues within a smaller sphere than others ; they 
value only their own relations, their friends, their country, 
or whatever is connected with themselves. This species of 
pride may be corrected by the same means which are used 
to increase sympathy.* Those who, either from tempera- 
ment, example, or accidental circumstances, have acquired 
the habit of repressing and commanding their emotions, must 
be carefully distinguished from the selfish and insensible. In 
the present times, when the affectation of sensibility is to be 
dreaded, we should rather encourage that species of pride 
which disdains to display the affections of the heart. " You 
Romans triumph over your tears, and call it virtue ; I triumph 
in my tears," says Caractacus ; his tears were respectable, 
but in general the Roman triumph would command the most 
sympathy. 

Some people attribute to pride all expressions of confidence 
in one's self : these may be offensive to common society, but 
they are sometimes powerful over the human mind, and where 
they are genuine, mark somewhat superior in character. 
Much of the effect of lord Chatham's eloquence, much of his 
transcendent influence in public, must be attributed to the 
confidence which he showed in his own superiority. " I tram- 
ple upon impossibilities !" was an exclamation which no infe- 
rior mind would dare to make. Would the house of com- 
mons have permitted any one but lord Chatham to have an- 
swered an oration by " Tell me, gentle shepherd, where ?" 
The danger of failing, the hazard that he runs of becoming ri- 
diculous who verges upon the moral sublime, is taken into our 
account when we judge of the action, and we pay involunta- 
ry tribute to courage and success : but how miserable is the 
fate of the man who mistakes his own powers, and upon tri- 



V. Sympathy. 



VANITY, PRIDE, AND AMBITION* 201 

al is unable to support his assumed superiority ; mankind re- 
venge themselves without mercy upon his ridiculous pride, ea- 
ger to teach him the difference between insolence and magnan- 
imity. Young people inclined to over-rate their own talents, 
or to under-value the abilities of others, should frequently 
have instances given to them from real life, of the mortifica- 
tions and disgrace to which imprudent boasters expose them- 
selves. Where they are able to demonstrate their own abili- 
ties, they run no risk in speaking with decent confidence; but 
where their success depends, in any degree, either upon for- 
tune or opinion, they should never run the hazard of presump- 
tion. Modesty prepossesses mankind in favour of its posses- 
sor, and has the advantage of being both graceful and safe: 
this was perfectly understood by the crafty Ulysses, who nei- 
ther raised his eyes, nor stretched his sceptred hand, " when 
he first rose to speak." We do not, however, recommend 
this artificial modesty ; its trick is soon discovered, and its 
sameness of dissimulation presently disgusts. Prudence 
should prevent young people from hazardous boasting; and 
good nature and good sense, which constitute real politeness, 
will restrain them from obtruding their merits to the mor- 
tification of their companions : but we do not expect from 
them total ignorance of their own comparative merit. The 
affectation of humility, when carried to the extreme, to which 
all affectation is liable to be carried, appears full as ridicu- 
lous as troublesome, and offensive as any of the graces of van- 
ity, or the airs of pride. Young people are cured of pre- 
sumption by mixing with society, but they are not so easily 
cured of any species of affectation. 

In the chapter on female accomplishments, we have endeav- 
oured to point out, that the enlargement of understanding in 
the fair sex, which must result from their increasing knowl- 
edge, will necessarily correct the feminine foibles of vanity 
and affectation. 

Strong, prophetic, eloquent praise, like that which the 
great lord Chatham bestowed on his son, would rather inspire 
in a generous soul noble emulation, than paltry vanity. " On 
this boy," said he, laying his hand upon his son's head, " des- 
cends my mantle, with a double portion of my spirit!" Phil- 
ip's praise of his son Alexander, when the boy rode the un- 
manageable horse,* is another instance of the kind of praise 
capable of exciting ambition. 

As to ambition, we must decide what species of ambition 
we mean, before we can determine whether it ought to be en- 



* V. Plutarch- 

26 



202 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

couraged or repressed ; whether it should be classed amongst 
virtues or vices ; that is to say, whether it adds to the happi- 
ness or the misery of human creatures. " The inordinate de- 
sire of fame,''' which often destroys the lives of millions when 
it is connected with ideas of military enthusiasm, is justly 
classed amongst the " diseases of volition :" for its description 
and cure we refer to Zoonomia, vol. ii. Achilles will there 
appear to his admirers, perhaps, in a new light. 

The ambition to rise in the world, usually implies a mean, 
sordid desire of riches, or what are called honours, to be ob- 
tained by the common arts of political intrigue, by cabal to 
win popular favour, or by address to conciliate the patronage 
of the great. The experience of those who have been gov- 
erned during their lives by this passion, if passion it may be 
called, does not show that it can confer much happiness either 
in the pursuit or attainment of its objects. See Bubb Dod- 
dington's Diary, a most useful book ; a journal of the petty 
anxieties, and constant dependence, to which an ambitious 
courtier is necessarily subjected. See also Mirabeau's " Se- 
cret History of the Court of Berlin," for a picture of a man 
of great abilities degraded by the same species of low un- 
principled competition. We may find in these books, it is to 
be hoped, examples which will strike young and generous 
minds, and which may inspire them with contempt for the ob- 
jects and the means of vulgar ambition. There is a more 
noble ambition, by which the enthusiastic youth, perfect in 
the theory of all the virtues, and warm with yet unextinguish- 
ed benevolence, is apt to be seized ; his heart beats with 
the hope of immortalizing himself by noble actions ; he forms 
extensive plans for the improvement and the happiness of his 
fellow-creatures ; he feels the want of power to carry these 
into effect ; power becomes the object of his wishes. In the 
pursuit, in the attainment of this object, how are his feelings 
changed ! M. Necker, in the preface to his work on French 
finance,* paints, with much eloquence, and with an appear- 
ance of perfect truth, the feelings of a man of virtue and 
genius, before and after the attainment of political power. 
The moment when a minister takes possession of his place, 
surrounded by crowds and congratulations, is well described : 
and the succeeding moment, when clerks with immense port- 
folios enter, is a striking contrast. Examples from romance 
can never have such a powerful effect upon the mind, as those 
which are taken from real life ; but in proportion to the just 
and lively representation of situations, and passions resem- 
bling reality, fictions may convey useful moral lessons. In 



Necker de l'Administration des Finances de la France, vol. i. p. 98. 



VANITY, PRIDE, AND AMBITION. 203 

the Cyropaedia there is an admirable description of the day 
spent by the victorious Cyrus, giving audience to the unman- 
ageable multitude, after the taking of Babylon had accom- 
plished the fulness of his ambition,* 

It has been observed, that these examples of the insufficien- 
cy of the objects of ambition to happiness, seldom make any 
lasting impression upon the minds of the ambitious. This 
may arise from two causes ; from the reasoning faculty's not 
having been sufficiently cultivated, or from the habits of am- 
bition being formed before proper examples are presented to 
the judgment for comparison. Some ambitious people, when 
they reason coolly, acknowledge and feel the folly of their 
pursuits; but still, from the force of habit, they act immedi- 
ately in obedience to the motives which they condemn : others, 
who have never been accustomed to reason firmly, believe 
themselves to be in the right in the choice of their objects ; 
and they cannot comprehend the arguments which are used 
by those who have not the same way of thinking as them- 
selves. If we fairly place facts before 3 r oung people, who 
have been habituated to reason, and who have not yet been 
inspired with the passion, or enslaved by the habits of vul- 
gar ambition, it is probable, that they will not be easily effa- 
ced from the memory, and that they will influence the con- 
duct through life. 

It sometimes happens to men of a sound understanding, 
and a philosophic turn of mind, that their ambition decreases 
with their experience. They begin with some ardour, per- 
haps, an ambitious pursuit; but by degrees they find the 
pleasure of the occupation sufficient without the fame, which 
was their original object. This is the same process which 
we have observed in the minds of children with respect to 
the pleasures of literature, and the taste for sugar-plums. 

Happy the child who can be taught to improve himself 
without the stimulus of sweetmeats ! Happy the man who 
can preserve activity without the excitements of ambition ! 



Cyropaedia, vol. ii. page 303. 



204 PRACTICAL EDUCATIONS 



CHAPTER XIL 



BOOKS. 



The first books which are now usually put into the hands of 
a child, are Mrs. Barbauld's Lessons : they are by far the 
best books of the kind that have ever appeared ; those only 
who know the difficulty and the importance of such composi- 
tions in education, can sincerely rejoice, that the admirable 
talents of such a writer have been employed in such a work. 
We shall not apologise for offering a few remarks on some 
passages in these little books, because we are convinced that 
we shall not offend. 

Lessons for children from three to four years old, should, 
we think, have been lessons for children from four to five 
years old ; few read, or ought to read, before that age. 

" Charles shall have a pretty new lesson." 

In this sentence the words pretty and new are associated ; 
but they represent ideas which ought to be kept separate in 
the mind of a child. The love of novelty is cherished in the 
minds of children by the common expressions that we use to 
engage them to do what we desire. " You shall have a new 
whip, a new hat," are improper modes of expression to a 
child. We have seen a boy who had literally twenty new 
whips in one year, and we were present when his father, to 
comfort him when he was in pain, went out to buy him a new 
whip, though he had two or three scattered about the- r^om. 

The description, in the first part of Mrs. Barbauld's Les- 
sons, of the naughty boy who tormented the robin, and who 
was afterwards supposed to be eaten by bears, is more objec- 
tionable than any in the book : the idea of killing is in itself 
very complex, and, if explained, serves only to excite terror ; 
and how can a child be made to comprehend why a cat 
should catch mice, and not kill birds ? or why should this spe- 
cies of honesty be expected from an animal of prey ? 

" I want my dinner." 

Does Charles take it for granted, that what he eats is his 
own, and that he must have his dinner? These and similar 
expressions are words of course; but young children should 
not be allowed to use them : if they are permitted to assume 
the tone of command, the feelings of impatience and ill ten> 
per quickly follow, and children become the little tyrants of 



BOOKS. 205 

a family. Property is a word of which young people have 
general ideas, and they may, with very little trouble, be pre- 
vented from claiming things to which they have no right. 
Mrs. Barbauld has judiciously chosen to introduce a little 
boy's daily history in these books ; all children are extreme- 
ly interested for Charles, and they are very apt to expect 
that every thing which happens to him, is to happen to them ; 
and they believe, that every thing he does, is right ; there- 
fore, his biographer should, in another edition, revise any of 
his expressions which may mislead the future tribe of his little 
imitators. 

" Maid, come and dress Charles." 

After what we have already said with respect to servants, 
we need only observe, that this sentence for Charles should 
not be read by a child ; and that in which the maid is said to 
bring home a gun, &c. it is easy to strike a pencil line across 
it. All the passages which might have been advantageously 
omitted in these excellent little books, have been carefully 
obliterated before they were put into the hands of chil- 
dren, by a mother who knew the danger of early false as- 
sociations. 

" Little boys don't eat butter." 

" No body wears a hat in the house." 

This is a very common method of speaking, but it certainly 
is not proper towards children. Affirmative sentences should 
always express real facts. Charles must know that some lit- 
tle boys do eat butter ; and that some people wear their hats 
in their houses. This mode of expression, " No body does 
that !" " Every body does this !" lays the foundation for pre- 
judice in the mind. This is the language of fashion, which. 
more than conscience, makes cowards of us all. 

" I want some wine." 

Wcjuld it not be better to tell Charles, in reply to this 
speech, that wine is not good for him, than to say, " Wine for 
little boys ! I never heard of such a thing !" If Charles were 
to be ill, and it should be nescessary to give him wine ; or 
were he to see another child drink it, he would lose confi- 
dence in what was said to him. We should be very careful 
of our words, if we expect our pupils to have confidence in 
us ; and if they have not, we need not attempt to educate 
them. 

" The moon shines at night, when the sun has gone to 
bed." 

When the sun is out of sight, would be more correct, though 
not so pleasing, perhaps, to the young reader. It is very 
proper to teach a child, that when the sun disappears, when 
the sun is below the horizon, it is the time when most animals 
go to rest ; but we should not do this by giving so false an 



206 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

idea, as that the sun is gone to bed. Every thing relative to 
the system of the universe, is above the comprehension of a 
child ; we should, therefore, be careful to prevent his forming 
erroneous opinions. We should wait for a riper period of his 
understanding, before we attempt positive instruction upon 
abstract subjects. 

The enumeration of the months in the year, the days in 
the week, of metals, &c. are excellent lessons for a child who 
is just beginning to learn to read. The classification of ani- 
mals into quadrupeds, bipeds, &c. is another useful specimen 
of the manner in which children should be taught to general- 
ize their ideas. The pathetic description of the poor timid 
hare running from the hunters, will leave an impression upon 
the young and humane heart, which may, perhaps, save the 
life of many a hare. The poetic beauty and eloquent sim- 
plicity of many of Mrs. Barbauld's Lessons, cultivate the 
imagination of children, and their taste, in the best possible 
manner. 

The description of the white swan with her long arched 
neck, " winning her easy way" through the waters, is beau- 
tiful ; so is that of the nightingale singing upon her lone bush 
by moon-light. Poetic descriptions of real objects, are well 
suited to children; apostrophe and personification they un- 
derstand ; but all allegoric poetry is difficult to manage for 
them, because they mistake the poetic attributes for reality, 
and they acquire false and confused ideas. With regret chil- 
dren close Mrs. Barbauld's little books, and parents become 
yet more sensible of their value, when they perceive that 
none can be found immediately to supply their place, or to 
continue the course of agreeable ideas which they have raised 
in the young pupil's imagination. 

" Evenings at Home," do not immediately join to Lessons 
for Children from three to four years old ; and we know not 
where to find any books to fill the interval properly. The 
popular character of any book is easily learned, and its gen- 
eral merit easily ascertained ; this may satisfy careless, indo- 
lent tutors, but a more minute investigation is necessary to 
parents who are anxious for the happiness of their family, or 
desirous to improve the art of education. Such parents will 
feel it to be their duty to look over every page of a book be- 
fore it is trusted to their children ; it is an arduous task, but 
none can be too arduous for the enlightened energy of paren- 
tal affection. We are acquainted with the mother of a fami- 
ly, who has never trusted any book to her children, without 
having first examined it herself with the most scrupulous at- 
tention ; her care has been repaid with that success in educa- 
tion, which such care can alone insure. We have several 
books before us marked by her pencil, and volumes which. 



BOOKS. 207 

having undergone some necessary operations by tier scissors, 
would, in their mutilated state, shock the sensibility of a nice 
librarian. But shall the education of a family be sacrificed 
to the beauty of a page, or even to the binding of a book ? 
Few books can safely be given to children without the pre- 
vious use of the pen, the pencil, and the scissors. In the 
books which we have before us, in their corrected state, we 
see sometimes a few words blotted out, sometimes half a page, 
sometimes many pages are cut out. In turning over the 
leaves of " The Children's Friend," we perceive, that the 
different ages at which different stories should be read, have 
been marked ; and we were surprised to meet with some sto- 
ries marked for six years old, and some for sixteen, in the 
same volume. We see that different stories have been mark- 
ed with the initials of different names by this cautious mother, 
who considered the temper and habits of her children, as well 
as their ages. 

As far as these notes refer peculiarly to her own family, 
they cannot be of use to the public ; but the principles which 
governed a judicious parent in her selection, must be capable 
of universal application. 

It may be laid down as a first principle, that we should pre- 
serve children from the knowledge of any vice, or any folly, 
of which the idea has never yet entered their minds, and 
which they are not necessarily disposed to learn by early ex- 
ample. Children who have never lived with servants, who 
have never associated with ill educated companions of their 
own age, and who, in their own family, have heard nothing 
but good conversation, and seen none but good examples, 
will, in their language, their manners, and their whole dispo- 
sition, be not only free from many of the faults common 
amongst children, but they will absolutely have no idea that 
there are such faults. The language of children who have 
heard no language but what is good, must be correct. On 
the contrary, children who hear a mixture of low and high 
vulgarity before their own habits are fixed, must, whenever 
they speak, continually blunder ; they have no rule to guide 
their judgment in their selection from the variety of dialects 
which they hear ; probably they may often be reproved 
for their mistakes, but these reproofs will be of no avail, 
whilst the pupils continue to be puzzled between the example 
of the nursery and of the drawing-room. It will cost much 
time and pains to correct these defects, which might have 
been with little difficulty prevented. It is the same with 
other bad habits. Falsehood, caprice, dishonesty, obstinacy, 
revenge, and all the train of vices which are the consequen- 
ces of mistaken or neglected education, which are learned by 
bad example, and which are not inspired by nature, need 



208 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

scarcely be known to children whose minds have from their 
infancy been happily regulated. Such children should sedu- 
lously be kept from contagion. No books should be put into 
the hands of this happy class of children, but such as present 
the best models of virtue : there is no occasion to shock them 
with caricatures of vice. Such caricatures they will not even 
understand to be well drawn, because they are unacquainted 
with any thing like the originals. Examples to deter them 
from faults to which they have no propensity, must be useless, 
and may be dangerous. For the same reason that a book 
written in bad language, should never be put into the hands 
of a child who speaks correctly, a book exhibiting instances 
of vice, should never be given to a child who thinks and acts 
correctly. The love of novelty and of imitation, is so strong 
in children, that even for the pleasure of imitating characters 
described in a book, or actions which strike them as singular, 
they often commit real faults. 

To this danger of catching faults by sympathy, children of 
the greatest simplicity are, perhaps, the most liable, because 
they least understand the nature and consequences of the ac- 
tions which they imitate. 

During the age of imitation, children should not be exposed to 
the influence of any bad examples until their habits are formed, 
and until they have not only the sense to choose, but the for- 
titude to abide by, their own choice. It may be said, that 
" children must know that vice exists ; that, even amongst 
their own companions, there are some who have bad disposi- 
tions ; they cannot mix even in the society of children, without 
seeing examples which they ought to be prepared to avoid." 

These remarks are just with regard to pupils who are in- 
tended for a public school, and no great nicety in the selec- 
tion of their books is necessary ; but we are now speaking of 
children who are to be brought up in a private family. Why 
should they be prepared to mix in the society of children 
who have bad habits or bad dispositions ? Children should 
not be educated for the society of children ; nor should they 
live in that society during their education. We must not ex- 
pect from them premature prudence, and all the social virtues, 
before we have taken any measures to produce these virtues, 
or this tardy prudence. In private education, there is little 
chance that one error should balance another ; the experience 
of the pupil is much confined ; the examples which he sees, 
are not so numerous and various as to counteract each other. 
Nothing, therefore, must be expected from the counteracting 
influence of opposing causes; nothing should be trusted to 
chance. Experience must preserve one uniform tenor ; and 
examples must be selected with circumspection. The less 
children associate with companions of their own age, the less 



books* gt»9 

they know of the world ; the stronger their taste for litera- 
ture ; the more forcible will be the impression that will be 
made upon them by the pictures of life, and the characters 
and sentiments which they meet with in books. Books for 
such children, ought to be sifted by an academy* of enlighten- 
ed parents. 

Without particular examples, the most obvious truths are 
not brought home to our business. We shall select a few ex- 
amples from a work of high and deserved reputation, from a 
work which we much admire, " Berquin's Children's Friend.'' 
We do not mean to criticise this work as a literary production ; 
but simply to point out to parents, that, even in the best books 
for children, much must still be left to the judgment of the 
preceptor; much in the choice of stories, and particular pas- 
sages suited to different pupils. 

In " The Children's Friend," there are several stories well 
adapted to one class of children, but entirely unfit for another. 
In the story called the Hobgoblin, Antonia, a little girl, " who 
has been told a hundred foolish stories by her maid, particu- 
larly one about a black-faced goblin," is represented as mak« 
ing a lamentable outcry at the sight of a chimney-sweeper; 
first she runs for refuge to the kitchen, the last place to which, 
she should run ; then to the pantry ; thence she jumps out of 
the window, " half dead with terror," and, in the elegant 
language of the translator, almost splits her throat with crying 
okt Help! Help! — In a few minutes she discovers her error, 
is heartily ashamed, and " ever afterwards Antonia was the 
first to laugh at silly stories, told by silly people, of hobgob-* 
lins and the like, to frighten her." 

For children who have had the misfortune to have heard 
the hundred foolish stories of a foolish maid, this apparition 
of the chimney-sweeper is well-managed ; though, perhaps, 
ridicule might not effect so sudden a cure in all cases as it did 
in that of Antonia. By children who have not acquired ter- 
rors of the black-faced goblin, and who have not the habit of 
frequenting the kitchen and the pantry, this story should 
never be read. 

" The little miss deceived by her maid," who takes hei* 
mamma's keys out of her drawers, and who steals sugar and 
tea for her maid, that she may have the pleasure of playing; 
with a cousin whom her mother had forbidden her to see, is 
not an example that need be introduced into any well regu- 
lated family. The picture of Amelia's misery, is drawn by 
the hand of a master. Terror and pity, we are told by the 



* V. Academic della Crusea. 
27 



210 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

tragic poets, purify the mind ; but there are minds that do 
not require this species of purification. Powerful antidotes 
are necessary to combat powerful poisons ; but where no poi- 
son has been imbibed, are not antidotes more dangerous than 
useful ? 

The stories called " The Little Gamblers ; Blind Man's 
Buff; and Honesty the best Policy," are stories which may 
do a great deal of good to bad children, but they should 
never be given to those of another description. The young 
gentlemen who cheat at cards, and who pocket silver fish, 
should have no admittance any where. It is not necessary 
to put children upon their guard against associates whom they 
are not likely to meet; nor need we introduce The Vulgar 
and Mischievous School-Boy, to any but school-boys. Mar- 
tin, who throws squibs at people in the street, who fastens 
rabbits' tails behind their backs, who fishes for their wigs, 
who sticks up pins in his friends' chairs, who carries a hideous 
mask in his pocket to frighten little children, and who is him- 
self frightened into repentance by a spectre with a speaking 
trumpet, is a very objectionable, though an excellent dramatic 
character. The part of the spectre is played by the groom; 
this is ill contrived in a drama for children ; grooms should 
have nothing to do with their entertainments ; and Cassar, 
who is represented as a pleasing character, should not be 
supposed to make the postillion a party in his inventions. 

" A good heart compensates for many indiscretions" is a dan- 
gerous title for a play for young people ; because many is an 
indefinite term ; and in settling how many, the calculations of 
parents and children may vary materially. This little play 
is so charmingly written, the character of the imprudent and 
generous Frederick is so likely to excite imitation, that we 
must doubly regret his intimacy with the coachman, his run- 
ning away from school, and drinking beer at an ale-house in 
a fair. The coachman is an excellent old man ; he is turned 
away for having let master Frederick mount his box, assume 
the whip, and overturn a handsome carriage. Frederick, 
touched with gratitude and compassion, gives the old man all 
his pocket money, and sells a watch and some books to buy 
clothes for him. The motives of Frederick's conduct are ex- 
cellent, and, as they are misrepresented by a treacherous and 
hypocritical cousin, we sympathize more strongly with the 
hero of the piece ; and all his indiscretions appear, at least, 
amiable defects. A nice observer* of the human heart says, 
that we are never inclined to cure ourselves of any defect 
which makes us agreeable. Frederick's real virtues will not. 



* Marmonteh " On ne se guerit pas d'un defaut qui plait." 



BOOKS. 211 

probably, excite imitation so much as his imaginary excellen- 
ces. We should take the utmost care not to associate in the 
mind the ideas of imprudence and of generosity ; of hypocri- 
sy and of prudence : on the contrary, it should be shown that 
prudence is necessary to real benevolence ; that no virtue is 
more useful, and consequently more respectable, than justice. 
These homely truths will never be attended to as the counter- 
check moral of an interesting story ; stories which require 
such morals, should, therefore, be avoided. 

It is to be hoped, that select parts of The Children's 
Friend,* translated by some able hand, will be published 
hereafter for the use of private families. Many of the stories, 
to which we have ventured to object, are by no means unfit 
for school-boys, to whom the characters which are most ex- 
ceptionable cannot be new. The vulgarity of language which 
we have noticed, is not to be attributed to M. Berquin, but to 
his wretched translator. L'Ami des Enfans, is, in French, 
remarkably elegantly written. The Little Canary Bird, Lit- 
tle George, The Talkative Little Girl, the Four Seasons, and 
many others, are excellent both in point of style and dramatic 
effect; they are exactly- suited to the understandings of chil- 
dren ; and they interest without any improbable events, or 
unnatural characters. 

In fiction it is difficult to avoid giving children false ideas of 
virtue, and still more difficult to keep the different virtues in 
their due proportions. This should be attended to with care 
in all books for young people ; nor should we sacrifice the 
understanding to the enthusiasm of eloquence, or the affecta- 
tion of sensibility. Without the habit of reasoning, the best 
dispositions can give us no solid security for happiness ; there- 
fore, we should early cultivate the reasoning faculty, instead 
of always appealing to the imagination. By sentimental per- 
suasives, a child may be successfully governed for a time, 
but that time will be of short duration, and no power can con- 
tinue the delusion long. 

In the dialogue upon this maxim, " that a competence is 
best," the reasoning of the father is not a match for that of 
the son ; by using less eloquence, the father might have made 
out his case much better. The boy sees that many people 
are richer than his father, and perceiving that their riches 
procure a great number of conveniences and comforts for them, 
he asks why his father, who is as good as these opulent peo- 
ple, should not also be as rich. His father tells him that he 
is rich, that he has a large garden, and a fine estate ; the 
boy asks to see it, and his father takes him to the top of a 



We have heard that such a translation was begun. 



212 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

high hill, and, showing him an extensive prospect, says to him, 
"All this is my estate." The boy cross questions his father, 
and finds out that it is not his estate, but that he may enjoy 
the pleasure of looking at it ; that he can buy wood when he 
wants it for firing ; venison, without hunting the deer himself; 
fish, without fishing ; and butter, without possessing all the 
cows that graze in the valley; therefore he calls himself mas- 
ter of the woods, the deer, the herds, the huntsmen, and the 
labourers that he beholds. This is* poetic philosophy, but 
it is not sufficiently accurate for a child ; it would confound 
his ideas of property, and it would be immediately contradict- 
ed by his experience. The father's reasoning is perfectly 
good, and well adapted to his pupil's capacity, when he asks, 
" whether he should not require a superfluous appetite to en- 
joy superfluous dishes at his meals." In returning from his 
walk, the boy sees a mill that is out of repair, a meadow that 
is flooded, and a quantity of hay spoiled; he observes, that 
the owners of these things must be sadly vexed by such acci- 
dents, and his father congratulates himself upon their not being 
his property. Here is a direct contradiction ; for a few min- 
utes before he had asserted that they belonged to him. Prop- 
erty is often the cause of much anxiety to its possessor ; but 
the question is, whether the pains, or the pleasures of possess- 
ing it, predominate; if this question could not be fully discus- 
sed, it should not be partially stated. To silence a child in 
argument is easy, to convince him is difficult ; sophistry or 
wit should never be used to confound the understanding. Rea- 
son has equal force from the lips of the giant and of the 
dwarf. 

These minute criticisms may appear invidious ; but it is hop- 
ed that they will be considered only as illustrations of general 
principles ; illustrations necessary to our subject. We have 
chosen M. Berquin's work because of its universal popularity ; 
probably all the examples which have been selected, are in the 
recollection of most readers, or at least it is easy to refer to 
them, because " The Children's Friend" is to be found in every 
house where there are any children. The principles by 
which we have examined Berquin, may be applied to all books 
of the same class. Sandford and Merton, Madame de Sille- 
ri's Theatre of Education, and her Tales of the Castle, Mad- 
ame de la Fite's Tales and Conversations, Mrs. Smith's Ru- 
ral Walks, with a long list of other books for children, which 
have considerable merit, would deserve a separate analysis, if 
literary criticism were our object. A critic once, with inde- 
fatigable ill-nature, picked out all the faults of a beautiful 



V. Hor. 2 Epist. lib. it 



BOOKS. 213 

poem, and presented them to Apollo. The god ordered a 
bushel of his best Parnassian wheat to be carefully winnowed, 
and he presented the critic with the chaff. Our wish is to sep- 
arate the small portion of what is useless, from the excellent 
nutriment contained in the books we have mentioned. 

With respect to sentimental stories,* and books of mere en- 
tertainment, we must remark, that they should be sparingly us- 
ed, especially in the education of girls. This species of reading, 
cultivates what is called the heart prematurely ; lowers the tone 
of the mind, and induces indifference for those common pleas- 
ures and occupations which, however trivial in themselves, 
constitute by far the greatest portion of our daily happiness. 
Stories are the novels of childhood. We know, from common 
experience, the effects which are produced upon the female 
mind by immoderate novel reading. To those who acquire 
this taste, every object becomes disgusting which is not in 
an attitude for poetic painting ; a species of moral picturesque, 
is sought for in every scene of life, and this is not always 
compatible with sound sense, or with simple reality. Gains- 
borough's Country Girl, as it has been humorously! remarked, 
" is a much more picturesque object, than a girl neatly dressed 
in a clean white frock ; but for this reason, are all children to 
go in rags?" A tragedy heroine, weeping, swooning, dying, is 
a moral picturesque object; but the frantic passions, which 
have the best effect upon the stage, might, when exhibited in 
domestic life, appear to be drawn upon too large a scale to 
please. The difference between reality and fiction, is so great, 
that those who copy from any thing but nature, are continual- 
ly disposed to make mistakes in their conduct, which appear 
ludicrous to the impartial spectator. Pathos depends on such 
nice circumstances, that domestic, sentimental distresses, are 
in a perilous situation ; the sympathy of their audience, is not 
always in the power of the fair performers. Frenzy itself may 
be turned to farce.J " Enter the princess mad in white satin, 
and her attendant mad in white linen." 

Besides the danger of creating a romantic taste, there is rea- 
son to believe, that the species of reading to which we object, 
has an effect directly opposite to what it is intended to pro- 
duce. It diminishes, instead of increasing, the sensibility of 
the heart ; a combination of romantic imagery, is requisite to 
act upon the associations of sentimental people, and they are 
virtuous only when virtue is in perfectly good taste. An elo^ 
quent philosopher^ observes, that in the description of scenes. 



* V. Sympathy and Sensibility. 

t V. A letter of Mr. Wyndham's to Mr. Repton, in Repton, on Landscape 
Gardening. 
% The Critic. tf Professor Stewart. 



214 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

of distress in romance and poetry, the distress is always made 
elegant ; the imagination which has been accustomed to this 
delicacy in fictitious narrations, revolts from the disgusting 
circumstances which attend real poverty, disease, and misery ; 
the emotions of pity, and the exertions of benevolence, are 
consequently repressed precisely at the time when they are 
necessary to humanity. 

With respect to pity, it is a spontaneous, natural emotion, 
which is strongly felt by children, but they cannot properly be 
said to feel benevolence till they are capable of reasoning. 
Charity, must, in them, be a very doubtful virtue; they cannot 
be competent judges as to the general utility of what they give. 
Persons of the most enlarged understanding, find it necessary 
to be extremely cautious in charitable donations, lest they 
should do more harm than good. Children cannot see be- 
yond the first link in the chain which holds society together; 
at the best, then, their charity can be but a partial virtue. But 
in fact, children have nothing to give; they think that they 
give, when they dispose of property of their parents; they 
suffer no privation from this sort of generosity, and they learn 
ostentation, instead of practising self-denial. Berquin, in his 
excellent story of " The Little Needle Woman," has made the 
children give their own work ; here the pleasure of employ- 
ment is immediately connected with the gratification of benev- 
olent feelings ; their pity is not merely passive, it is active and 
useful. 

In fictitious narratives, affection for parents, and for bro- 
thers and sisters, is often painted in agreeable colours, to ex- 
cite the admiration and sympathy of children. Caroline, the 
charming little girl, who gets upon a chair to wipe away the 
tears that trickle down her eldest sister's cheek when her 
mother is displeased with her,* forms a natural and beautiful 
picture ; but the desire to imitate Caroline, must produce af- 
fectation. All the simplicity of youth is gone, the moment 
children perceive that they are extolled for the expression of 
fine feelings, and fine sentiments. Gratitude, esteem, and af- 
fection, do not depend upon the table of consanguinity ; they 
are involuntary feelings, which cannot be raised at pleasure 
by the voice of authority ; they will not obey the dictates of 
interest; they secretly despise the anathemas of sentiment. 
Esteem and affection, are the necessary consequences of a 
certain course of conduct, combined with certain external cir- 
cumstances, which are, more or less, in the power of every 
individual. To arrange these circumstances prudently, and 



Berquin. 



BOOKS. 215 

to pursue a proper course of conduct steadily, something 
more is necessary than the transitory impulse of sensibility, or 
of enthusiasm. 

There is a class of books which amuse the imagination of 
children, without acting upon their feelings. We do not al- 
lude to fairy tales, for we apprehend that these are not now 
much read ; but we mean voyages and travels ; these interest 
young people universally. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver, and 
the Three Russian Sailors, who were cast away upon the 
coast of Norway, are general favourites. No child ever read 
an account of a shipwreck, or even a storm, without pleasure. 
A desert island is a delightful place, to be equalled only by 
the skating land of the rein deer, or by the valley of diamonds 
in the Arabian Tales. Savages, especially if they be canni- 
bals, are sure to be admired, and the more hair-breadth es- 
capes the hero of the tale has survived, and the more marvel- 
lous his adventures, the more sympathy he excites.* 

Will it be thought to proceed from a spirit of contradiction, 
if we remark, that this species of reading should not early be 
chosen for boys of an enterprising temper, unless they are in- 
tended for a sea-faring life, or for the army ? The taste for 
adventure is absolutely incompatible with the sober perse- 
verance necessary to success in any other liberal professions. 
To girls, this species of reading cannot be as dangerous as it 
is to boys ; girls must very soon perceive the impossibility of 
their rambling about the world in quest of adventures; and 
where there appears an obvious impossibility in gratifying any 
wish it is not likely to become, or at least to continue, a tor- 
ment to the imagination. Boys, on the contrary, from the 
habits of their education, are prone to admire, and to imitate, 
every thing like enterprise and heroism. Courage and forti- 
tude, are the virtues" of men, and it is natural that boys should 
desire, if they believe that they possess these virtues, to be 
placed in those great and extraordinary situations which can 
display them to advantage. The taste for adventure, is not 
repressed in boys by the impossibility of its indulgence ; the 
world is before them, and they think that fame promises the 
highest prize to those who will most boldly venture in the lot- 
tery of fortune, j The rational probability of success, few 
young people are able, fewer still are willing, to calculate ; 
and the calculations of prudent friends, have little power over 
their understandings, or at least, over their imagination, the 
part of the understanding which is most likely to decide their 
conduct. — From general maxims, we cannot expect that young 
people should learn much prudence ; each individual admits the 



V. Sympathy and Sensibility. 



216 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

propriety of the rule, yet believes himself to be a privileged ex- 
ception. Where any prize is supposed to be in the gift of 
fortune, every man, or every young man, takes it for granted 
that he is a favourite, and that it will be bestowed upon him. 
The profits of commerce and of agriculture, the profits of every 
art and profession, can be estimated with tolerable accuracy ; 
the value of activity, application, and abilities, can be respec- 
tively measured by some certain standard. Modest, or even 
prudent people, will scruple to rate themselves in all of these 
qualifications superior to their neighbours ; but every man 
will allow that, in point of good fortune, at any game of 
chance, he thinks himself upon a fair level with every other 
competitor. 

When a young man deliberates upon what course of life he 
shall follow, the patient drudgery of a trade, the laborious 
mental exertions requisite to prepare him for a profession, 
must appear to him in a formidable light, compared with the 
alluring prospects presented by an adventuring imagination. 
At this time of life, it will be too late suddenly to change the 
taste; it will be inconvenient, if not injurious to restrain a 
young man's inclinations by force or authority ; it will be im- 
prudent, perhaps fatally imprudent, to leave them uncontrol- 
led. Precautions should therefore be taken long before this 
period, and the earlier they are taken, the better. It is not 
idle refinement to assert, that the first impressions which are 
made upon the imagination, though they may be changed by 
subsequent circumstances, yet are discernible in every 
change, and are seldom entirely effaced from the mind, though 
it may be difficult to trace them through all their various ap- 
pearances. A boy, who at seven years old, longs to be Ro- 
binson Crusoe, or Sihbad the sailor, may at seventeen^ retain 
the same taste for adventure and enterprise, though mixed so 
as to be less discernible, with the incipient passions of avarice 
and ambition ; he has the same dispositions modified by a 
slight knowledge of real life, and guided by the manners and 
conversation of his friends and acquaintance. Robinson Cru- 
soe and Sinbad, will no longer be his favourite heroes ; but 
he will now admire the soldier of fortune, the commercial ad- 
venturer, or the nabob, who has discovered in the east the 
secret of Aladdin's wonderful lamp; and who has realized 
the treasures of Aboulcasem. 

/'The history of realities, written in an entertaining manner^ 
appears not only better suited to the purposes of education^ 
but also more agreeable to ^oung people than improbable fic- 
tions. We have seen the reasons why it is dangerous to 
pamper the taste early with mere books of entertainment ; to 
voyages and travels, we have made some objections. Natu- 
ral history is a study particularly suited to children : it culti* 



BOOKS. 217 

vates their talents for observation, applies to objects within 
their reach, and to objects which are every day interesting 
to them. The histories of the bee, the ant, the caterpillar, 
the butterfly, the silkworm, are the first things that please the 
taste of children, and these are the histories of realities. 

Amongst books of mere entertainment, no one can be so 
injudicious, or so unjust, as to class the excellent " Evenings 
at Home." Upon a close examination, it appears to be one 
of the best books for young people from seven to ten years 
old, that has yet appeared. We shall not pretend to enter 
into a minute examination of it; because, from what we have 
already said, parents can infer our sentiments, and we wish to 
avoid tedious, unnecessary detail. We shall, however, just 
observe, that the lessons on natural history, on metals, and on 
chemistry, are particularly useful, not so much from the quan- 
tity of knowledge which they contain, as by the agreeable 
manner in which it is communicated : the mind is opened to ex- 
tensive views, at the same time that nothing above the compre- 
hension of children is introduced. The mixture of moral and 
scientific lessons is happily managed, so as to relieve the at- 
tention ; some of the moral lessons, contain sound argument, 
and some display just views of life. " Perseverance against 
Fortune ;" " The Price of Victory ;" " Eyes and no Eyes," 
have been generally admired as much by parents as by 
children. 

There is a little book called " Leisure Hours," which con- 
tains a great deal of knowledge suited to young people ; but 
they must observe, that the style is not elegant ; perhaps, in 
a future edition the style may be revised. The " Conversa- 
tions d'Emile," are elegantly written, and the character of the 
mother and child admirably well preserved. White of Sel- 
borne's Naturalist's Calendar, we can recommend with entire 
approbation : it is written in a familiar, yet elegant style ; 
and the journal form gives it that air of reality which is so 
agreeable and interesting to the mind. Mr. White will make 
those who have observed, observe the more, and will excite 
the spirit of observation in those who never before observed. 

Smellie's Natural History is a useful, entertaining book ; 
but it must be carefully looked over, and many pages and 
half pages must be entirely sacrificed. And here one general 
caution may be necessary. It is hazarding too much, to 
make children promise not to read parts of any book which 
is put into their hands ; when the book is too valuable, in a 
parent's estimation, to be cut or blotted, let it not be given to 
children when they are alone ; in a parent's presence, there 
is no danger, and the children will acquire the habit of 
reading the passages that are selected without feeling curiosi* 
28 



218 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ty about the rest. As young people grow up, they will judge 
of the selections that have been made for them ; they will 
perceive why such a passage was fit for their understanding 
at one period, which they could not have understood at anoth- 
er. If they are never forced to read what is tiresome, they 
will anxiously desire to have passages selected for them ; and 
they will not imagine that their parents are capricious in these 
selections ; but they will, we speak from experience, be sin- 
cerely grateful to them for the time and trouble bestowed in 
procuring their literary amusements. 

When young people have established their character for 
truth and exact integrity, they should be entirely trusted with 
books as with every thing else. A slight pencil line at the 
side of a page, will then be all that is necessary to guide 
them to the best parts of any book. Suspicion would be as 
injurious, as too easy a faith is imprudent : confidence con- 
firms integrity ; but the habits of truth must be formed be- 
fore dangerous temptations are presented. We intended to 
have given a list of books, and to have named the pages in 
several authors, which have been found interesting to chil- 
dren from seven to nine or ten years old. The Reviews ; 
The Annual Registers ; Enfield's Speaker ; Elegant Extracts ; 
The papers of the Manchester Society : The French Acad- 
emy of Sciences ; Priestley's History of Vision ; and parts 
of the Works of Franklin, of Chaptal, Lavoisier and Darwin, 
have supplied us with our best materials. Some periodical 
papers from the World, Rambler, Guardian, and Adventurer, 
have been chosen : these are books with which all libraries 
are furnished. But we forbear to offer any list ; the passages 
we should have mentioned, have been found to please in one 
family ; but we are sensible, that as circumstances vary, the 
choice of books for different families, ought to be different. 
Every parent must be capable of selecting those passages in 
books which are most suited to the age, temper, and taste of 
their children. Much of the success, both of literary and 
moral education, will depend upon our seizing the happy mo- 
ments for instruction; moments .when knowledge immediate- 
ly applies to what children are intent upon themselves ; the 
step which is to be taken by the understanding, should imme- 
diately follow that which has already been secured. By 
watching the turn of mind, and by attending to the conversation 
of children, we may perceive exactly what will suit them in 
books ; and we may preserve the connexion of their ideas 
without fatiguing their attention. A paragraph read aloud from 
the newspaper of the day, a passage from any book which 
parents happen to be reading themselves, will catch the at- 
tention of the young people in a family, and will, perhaps, 
excite more taste and more curiosity, than could be given by 



BOOKS. 219 

whole volumes read at times when the mind is indolent or in- 
tent upon other occupations. 

The custom of reading aloud for a great while together, is 
extremely fatiguing to children, and hurtful to their under- 
standings ; they learn to read on without the slightest atten- 
tion or thought ; the more fluently they read, the worse it is 
for them ; for their preceptors, whilst words and sentences are 
pronounced with tolerable emphasis, never seem to suspect 
that the reader can be tired, or that his mind may be absent 
from his book. The monotonous tones which are acquired 
by children who read a great deal aloud, are extremely dis- 
agreeable, and the habit cannot easily be broken : we may 
observe, that children who have not acquired bad customs, al- 
ways read as they speak, when they understand what they 
read 5 but the moment when they come to any sentence 
which they do not comprehend, their voice alters, and they 
read with hesitation, or with false emphasis : to these signals 
a preceptor should always attend, and the passage should be 
explained before the pupil is taught to read it in a musical 
tone, or with the proper emphasis : thus children should be 
taught to read by the understanding, and not merely by tho 
ear. Dialogues, dramas, and well written narratives, they al- 
ways read we//, and these should be their exercises in the art 
of reading : they should be allowed to put down the book as 
soon as they are tired ; but an attentive tutor will perceive 
when they ought to be stopped, before the utmost point of fa- 
tigue. We have heard a boy of nine years old, who had 
never been taught elocution by any reading master, read sim- 
ple pathetic passages, and natural dialogues in " Evenings at 
Home," in a manner which would have made even Sterne's 
critic forget his stop-watch. 

By reading much at a time, it is true that a great number of 
books are run through in a few years ; but this is not at all our 
object ; on the contrary, our greatest difficulty has been to find 
a sufficient number of books fit for children to read. If they 
early acquire a strong taste for literature, no matter how few 
authors they may have perused. We have often heard young 
people exclaim, " I'm glad I have not read such a book — I 
have a great pleasure to come !" — Is not this better than to see 
a child yawn over a work, and count the number of tiresome 
pages, whilst he says, " I shall have got through this book by 
and by ; and what must I read when I have done this ? I believe 
I never shall have read all I am to read ! What a number of 
tiresome books there are in the world ! I wonder what can 
be the reason that I must read them all ! If I were but allow- 
ed to skip the pages that I don't understand, I should be much 
happier, for when I come to any thing entertaining in a book^ 



220 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

I can keep myself awake, and then I like reading as well as 
any body does." 

Far from forbidding to skip the incomprehensible pages, or 
to close the tiresome volume, we should exhort our pupils 
never to read one single page that tires, or that they do not 
fully understand. We need not fear, that, because an excel- 
lent book is not interesting at one period of education, it 
should not become interesting at another ; the child is always 
the best judge of what is suited to his present capacity. If 
he says, " Such a book tires me," the preceptor should never 
answer with a forbidding, reproachful look, " I am surprised 
at that, it is no great proof of your taste ; the book, which 
you say tires you, is written by one of the best authors in the 
English language." The boy is sorry for it, but he cannot 
help it ; and he concludes, if he be of a timid temper, that he 
has no taste for literature, since the best authors in the Eng- 
lish language tire him. It is in vain to tell him, that the book 
is " universally allowed to be very entertaining" — 

" If it be not such to me, 

" What care I how fine it be !" 

The more encouraging and more judicious parent would 
answer upon a similar occasion, " You are very right not to 
read what tires you my dear; and I am glad that you have 
sense enough to tell me that this book does not entertain you, 
though it is written by one of the best authors in the English 
language. We do not think at all the worse of your taste 
and understanding ; we know that the day will come when 
this book will probably entertain you ; put it by until then, I 
advise you." 

It may be thought, that young people who read only those 
parts of books which are entertaining, or those which are se- 
lected for them, are in danger of learning a taste for variety, 
and desultory habits, which may prevent their acquiring ac- 
curate knowledge upon any subject, and which may render 
them incapable of that literary application, without which 
nothing can be well learned. We hope the candid preceptor 
will suspend his judgment, until we can explain our senti- 
ments upon this subject more fully, when we examine the na- 
ture of invention and memory.* 

The secret fear, that stimulates parents to compel their 
children to constant application to certain books, arises from 
the opinion, that much chronological and historical knowledge 
must at all events be acquired during a certain number of 



* Chapter on Invention and Memory 



BOOKS. 221 

years. The knowledge of history is thought a necessary ac- 
complishment in one sex, and an essential part of education 
in the other. We ought, however, to distinguish between 
that knowledge of history and of chronology which is really 
useful, and th'at which is acquired merely for parade. We 
must call that useful knowledge, which enlarges the view of 
human life and of human nature, which teaches by the expe- 
rience of the past, what we may expect in future. To study 
history as it relates to these objects, the pupil must have ac- 
quired much previous knowledge ; the habit of reasoning, and 
the power of combining distant analogies. The works of 
Hume, of Robertson, Gibbon, or Voltaire, can be properly 
understood only by well informed and highly cultivated un- 
derstandings. Enlarged views of policy, some knowledge of 
the interests of commerce, of the progress and state of civili- 
zation and literature in different countries, are necessary to 
whoever studies these authors with real advantage. Without 
these, the finest sense, and the finest writing, must be utterly 
thrown away upon the reader. Children, consequently, un- 
der the name of fashionable histories, often read what to them 
is absolute nonsense : they have very little motive for the 
study of history, and all that we can say to keep alive their 
interest, amounts to the common argument, " that such infor- 
mation will be useful to them hereafter, when they hear his- 
tory mentioned in conversation." 

Some people imagine, that the memory resembles a store- 
house, in which we should early lay up facts ; and they as- 
sert, that, however useless these may appear at the time 
when they are laid up, they will afterwards be ready for ser- 
vice at our summons. One allusion may be fairly answered 
by another, since it is impossible to oppose allusion by rea- 
soning. In accumulating facts, as in amassing riches, people 
often begin by believing that they value wealth only for the 
use they shall make of it ; but it often happens, that during 
the course of their labours, they learn habitually to set a 
value upon the coin itself, and they grow avaricious of that 
which they are sensible has little intrinsic value. Young 
people who have accumulated a vast number of facts, and 
names, and dates, perhaps intended originally to make some 
good use of their treasure ; but they frequently forget their 
laudable intentions, and conclude by contenting themselves 
with the display of their nominal wealth. Pedants and mi- 
sers forget the real use of wealth and knowledge, and they 
accumulate without rendering what they acquire useful to 
themselves or to others. 

A number of facts are often stored in the mind which lie 
there useless, because they cannot be found at the moment 
when they are wanted. It is not sufficient, therefore, in edu- 



222 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

cation, to store up knowledge ; it is essential to arrange facts 
so that they shall be ready for use, as materials for the imagi- 
nation, or the judgment, to select and combine. The power 
of retentive memory is exercised too much, the faculty of re- 
collective memory is exercised too little, by the common 
modes of education. Whilst children are reading the history 
of kings, and battles, and victories ; whilst they are learning 
tables of chronology and lessons of geography by rote, their 
inventive and their reasoning faculties are absolutely passive ; 
nor are any of the facts which they learn in this manner, as- 
sociated with circumstances in real life. These trains of 
ideas may with much pains and labour be fixed in the memo- 
ry, but they must be recalled precisely in the order in which 
they were learnt by rote, and this is not the order in which 
they may be wanted: they will be conjured up in technical 
succession, or in troublesome multitudes. — Many people are 
obliged to repeat the alphabet before they can recollect the 
relative place of any given letter; others repeat a column of 
the multiplication table before they can recollect the given 
sum of the number they want. There is a common rigmarole 
for telling the number of days in each month in the year; 
those who have learnt it by heart, usually repeat the whole 
of it before they can recollect the place of the month which 
they want ; and sometimes in running over the lines, people 
miss the very month which they are thinking of, or repeat its 
name without perceiving that they have named it. In the 
same manner, those who have learned historical or chrono- 
logical facts in a technical mode, must go through the whole 
train of their rigmarole associations before they can hit upon 
the idea which they want. Lord Bolingbroke mentions 
an acquaintance of his, who had an amazing collection of 
facts in his memory, but unfortunately he could never pro- 
duce one of them in the proper moment; he was always 
obliged to go back to some fixed landing place, from which 
he was accustomed to take his flight. Lord Bolingbroke 
used to be afraid of asking him a question, because when 
once he began, he went off like a larum, and could not be 
stopped; he poured out a profusion of things which had 
nothing to do with the point in question; and it was ten to 
one but he omitted the only circumstance that would have 
been really serviceable. Many people who have tenacious 
memories, and who have been ill educated, find themselves in 
a similar condition, with much knowledge baled up, an in- 
cumbrance to themselves and to their friends. The great dif- 
ference which appears in men of the same profession, and in 
the same circumstances, depends upon the application of their 
knowledge more than upon the quantity of their learning. 



books. 223 

With respect to a knowledge of history and chronologic 
learning, every body is now nearly upon a level ; this species 
of information cannot be a great distinction to any one : a 
display of such common knowledge, is considered by literary 
people, and by men of genius especially, as ridiculous and of- 
fensive. Que motive, therefore, for loading the minds of chil- 
dren with historic dates and facts, is likely, even from its hav- 
ing universally operated, to cease to operate in future. With- 
out making it a laborious task to young people, it is easy to 
give them such a knowledge of history, as will preserve them 
from the shame of ignorance, and put them upon a footing 
with men of good sense in society, though not, perhaps, with 
men who have studied history for the purpose of shining in 
conversation. For our purpose, it is not necessary early to 
study voluminous philosophic histories; these should be pre- 
served for a more advanced period of their education. The 
first thing to be done, is to seize the moment when curiosity 
is excited by the accidental mention of any historic name or 
event. When a child hears his father talk of the Roman em- 
perors, or of the Roman people, he naturally enquires who 
these people were ; some short explanation may be given, sa 
as to leave curiosity yet unsatisfied. The prints of the Ro- 
man emperors' heads, and Mrs. Trimmer's prints of the re- 
markable events in the Roman and English history, will en- 
tertain children. Madame de Silleri, in her Adela and The- 
odore, describes historical hangings, which she found advan- 
tageous to her pupils. In a prince's palace, or a nobleman's 
palace, such hangings would be suitable decorations, or in a 
public seminary of education it would be worth while to pre- 
pare them : private families would, perhaps, be alarmed at 
the idea of expense, and at the idea, that their house could 
not readily be furnished in proper time for the instruction of 
children. As we know the effect of such apprehensions of dif- 
ficulty, we forbear from insisting upon historical hangings, es- 
pecially as we think that children should not, by any great 
apparatus for teaching them history, be induced to set an ex- 
orbitant value upon this sort of knowledge, and should hence 
be excited to cultivate their memories without reasoning or 
reflecting. If any expedients are thought necessary to fix 
historic facts early in the mind, the entertaining display of 
Roman emperors, and British kings and queens, may be made, 
as madame de Silleri recommends, in a magic lantborn, or by 
the Ombres Chinoises. When these are exhibited, there 
should be some care taken not to introduce any false ideas. 
Parents should be present at the spectacle, and should an- 
swer each eager question with prudence. " Ha ! here comes 
queen Elizabeth i" exclaims the child ; " was she a good wo- 
man ?" A foolish show-man would answer, " Yes, master. 



224 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

she was the greatest queen that ever sat upon the English 
throne !" A sensible mother would reply, " My dear, I can- 
not answer that question; you will read her history yourself, 
you will judge by her actions, whether she was, or was not, a 
good woman." Children are often extremely impatient to 
settle the precise merit and demerit of every historical per- 
sonage, with whose names they become acquainted ; but this 
impatience should not be gratified by the short method of re- 
ferring to the characters given of these persons in any com- 
mon historical abridgment. We should advise all such 
characters to be omitted in books for children ; let those who 
read, form a judgment for themselves : this will do more ser- 
vice to the understanding, than can be done by learning by 
rote the opinion of any historian. The good and bad quali- 
ties ; the decisive, yet contradictory, epithets, are so jumbled 
together in these characters, that no distinct notion can be left 
in the reader's mind : and the same words recur so frequently 
in the characters of different kings, that they are read over in 
a monotonous voice, as mere concluding sentences, which come 
of course, at the end of every reign. " King Henry the Fifth, 
was tall and slender, with a long neck, engaging aspect, and 
limbs of the most elegant turn. ******** * # jjj s 
valour was such as no danger could startle, and no difficulty 
could oppose. He managed the dissensions amongst his ene- 
mies with such address as spoke him consummate in the 
arts of the cabinet. He was chaste, temperate, modest, and 
devout, scrupulously just in his administration, and severely 
exact in the discipline of his array, upon which he knew his 
glory and success in a great measure depended. In a word, 
it must be owned that he was without an equal in the arts of 
war, policy, and government. His great qualities were, how- 
ever, somewhat obscured by his ambition, and his natural pro- 
pensity to cruelty." 

Is it possible that a child of seven or eight years old can 
acquire any distinct, or any just ideas, from the perusal of this 
character of Henry the Fifth ? Yet it is selected as one of the 
best drawn characters from a little abridgment of the histo- 
ry of England, which is, in general, as well done as any we 
have seen. Even the least exceptionable historic abridg- 
ments require the corrections of a patient parent. In abridg- 
ments for children, the facts are usually interspersed with 
what the authors intend for moral reflections, and easy expla- 
nations of political events, which are meant to be suited to 
the meanest capacities. These reflections and explanations do 
much harm ; they instil prejudice, and they accustom the 
young unsuspicious reader to swallow absurd reasoning, mere- 
ly because it is often presented to him. If no history can be 
found entirely free from these defects, and if it be even im- 



books. 225 

possible to correct any completely, without writing the whole 
over again, yet much may he done by those who hear children 
read. Explanations can be given at the moment when the 
difficulties occur. When the young reader pauses to think, 
allow him to think, and suffer him to question the assertions 
which he meets with in books, with freedom, and that minute 
accuracy which is only tiresome to those who cannot reason. 
The simple morality of childhood is continually puzzled and 
shocked at the representation of the crimes and the virtues of 
historic heroes. History, when divested of the graces of elo- 
quence, and of that veil which the imagination is taught to 
throw over antiquity, presents a disgusting, terrible list of 
crimes and calamities : murders, assassinations, battles, revo- 
lutions, are the memorable events of history. The love of 
glory atones for military barbarity ; treachery and fraud are 
frequently dignified with the names of prudence and policy \ 
and the historian, desirous to appear moral and sentimental, 
yet compelled to produce facts, makes out an inconsistent, am- 
biguous system of morality. A judicious and honest precep- 
tor will not, however, imitate the false tenderness of the histo- 
rian for the dead ; he will rather consider what is most ad- 
vantageous to the living; he will perceive, that it is of more 
consequence that his pupils should have distinct notions of 
right and wrong, than that they should have perfectly by rote 
all the Grecian, Roman, English, French, all the fifty volumes 
of the Universal History. A preceptor will not surely at- 
tempt, by any sophistry, to justify the crimes which sometimes 
obtain the name of heroism ; when his ingenious indignant pu- 
pil verifies the astonishing numeration of the hundreds and 
thousands that were put to death by a conqueror, or that fell 
in one battle, he will allow this astonishment and indignation 
to be just, and he will rejoice that it is strongly felt and ex- 
pressed. 

Besides the false characters which are sometimes drawn of 
individuals in history, national characters are often decidedly 
given in a few epithets, which prejudice the mind, and convey 
no real information. Can a child learn any thing but nation- 
al prepossession, from reading in a character of the English 
nation, that " boys, before they can speak, discover that they 
know the proper guards in boxing with their fists, a quality that, 
perhaps, is peculiar to the English, and is seconded by a 
strength of arm that few other people can exert ? This gives 
their soldiers an infinite superiority in all battles that are to 
be decided by the bayonet screwed upon the musket.*" Why 
should children be told that the Italians are naturally revenge- 

* Guthrie's Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar, page 186. 
oq 



£26 rRACTICAX JEDUCAT10N, 

ful ; the French naturally vain and perfidious, ' : excessively 
credulous and litigious-," that the Spaniards are naturally 
jealous and haughty ?t The patriotism of an enlarged and 
generous mind cannot, surely, depend upon the early con- 
tempt inspired for foreign nations. — We do not speak of the 
education necessary for naval and military men — with this 
we have nothing to do; but surely it cannot be necessary to 
teach national prejudices to any other class of young men. If 
these prejudices are ridiculed by sensible parents, children 
will not be misled by partial authors ; general assertions will 
be of little consequence to those who are taught to reason ; 
they will not be overawed by nonsense wherever they may 
meet with it. 

The words whig and tory, occur frequently in English his- 
tory, and liberty and tyranny are talked of — the influence 
of the crown — the rights of the people. What are children 
of eight or nine years old to understand by these expressions ? 
and how can a tutor explain them, without inspiring political 
prejudices? We do not mean here to enter into any political 
discussion ; we think, that children should not be taught the 
principles of their preceptors, whatever they may be ; they 
should judge for themselves, and, until they are able to judge, 
all discussion, all explanations, should be scrupulously avoided. 
Whilst they are children, the plainest chronicles are for them 
the best histories, because they express no political tenets and 
dogmas. When our pupils grow up, at whatever age they 
may be capable of understanding them, the best authors who 
have written on each side of the question, the best works, with- 
out any party considerations, should be put into their hands ; 
and let them form their own opinions from facts and arguments, 
uninfluenced by passion, and uncontrolled by authority. 

As young people increase their collection of historic facts, 
some arrangement will be necessary to preserve these in prop- 
er order in the memory. Priestle3 7 's Biographical Chart is 
an extremely ingenious contrivance for this purpose ; it should 
hang up in the room where children read, or rather where 
they live, for we hope no room will ever be dismally conse- 
crated to their studies. Whenever they hear any celebrated 
name mentioned, or when they meet with any in books, they 
will run to search for these names in the biographical chart ; 
and those who are used to children, will perceive, that the 
pleasure of this search, and the joy of the discovery, will fix 
biography and chronology easily in their memories. Morti- 
mer's Student's Dictionary, and Brooke's Gazetteer, should, in 
a library or room which children usually inhabit, be always 
within the reach of children. If they are always consulted a t 

t Guthrie, page 398. 



books. 227 

the very moment they are wanted, much may be learned 
from them ; but if there be any difficulty in getting at these 
dictionaries, children forget, and lose all interest in the things 
which they wanted to know. But if knowledge becomes im- 
mediately useful, or entertaining to them, there is no danger 
of their forgetting. Who ever forgets Shakespeare's histori- 
cal plays ? The arrangements contrived and executed by oth- 
ers, do not always fix things so firmly in our remembrance, 
as those which we have had some share in contriving and ex- 
ecuting ourselves. 

One of our pupils has drawn out a biographical chart upon 
the plan of Priestley's, inserting such names only as he was 
well acquainted with; he found, that in drawing out this chart, 
a great portion of general history, and biography was fixed in 
his memory. Charts, in the form of Priestley's, but without 
the names of the heroes, &c. being inserted, would, perhaps, 
be useful for schools and private families. 

There are two French historical works, which we wish were 
well translated for the advantage of those who do not under- 
stand French. The chevalier Meheghan's Tableau de l'His- 
toire Moderne, which is sensibly divided into epochs ; and 
Condillac's View of Universal History, comprised in five vol- 
umes, in his " Cours d'Etude pour l'Instruction du Prince de 
Parme." This history carries on, along with the records of 
wars and revolutions, the history of the progress of the human 
mind, of arts, and scienees ; the view of the different govern- 
ments of Europe, is full and concise ; no prejudices are instilled, 
yet the manly and rational eloquence of virtue, gives life and 
spirit to the work. The concluding address, from the pre- 
ceptor to his royal pupil, is written with all the enlightened 
energy of a man of truth and genius. We do not recommend 
Condillac's history as an elementary work ; for this it is by no 
means fit ; but it is one of the best histories that a young man 
of fifteen or sixteen can read. 

It is scarcely possible to conceive, that several treatises on 
grammar, the art of reasoning, thinking, and writing, which are 
contained in M. Condillac's course of study, were designed by 
him for elementary books, for the instruction of a child from 
seven to ten years old. It appears the more surprising that 
the abbe should have so far mistaken the capacity of child- 
hood, because, in his judicious preface, he seems fully sensible 
of the danger of premature cultivation, and of the absurdity of 
substituting a knowledge of words for a knowledge of things. 
As M. Condillac's is a work of high reputation, we may be al- 
lowed to make a few remarks on its practical utility, and this 
may, perhaps, afford us an opportunity of explaining our ideas 
upon the use of metaphysical, poetical, and critical works, in 
early education. We do not mean any invidious criticism 
upon Condillac, but in " Practical Education" we wish to take 



228 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

our examples and illustrations from real life. The abbe's 
course of study, for a boy of seven years old, begins with 
metaphysics. In his preface he asserts, that the arts of speak- 
ing, reasoning, and writing, differ from one another only in de- 
grees of accuracy, and in the more or less perfect connexion 
of ideas. He observes, that attention to the manner in which 
we acquire, and in which we arrange our knowledge, is ne- 
cessary equally to those who would learn, and to those who 
would teach, with success. These remarks are just ; but 
does not he draw an erroneous conclusion from his own prin- 
ciples, when he infers, that the first lessons which we should 
teach a child, ought to be metaphysical? He has given us an 
abstract of those which he calls preliminary lessons, on the 
operations of the soul, on attention, judgment, imagination, 
&c. — he adds, that he thought it useless to give to the public 
the conversations and explanations which he had with his pu- 
pil on these subjects. Both parents and children must regret 
the suppression of these explanatory notes ; as the lessons ap- 
pear at present, no child of seven years old can understand, 
and few preceptors can or will make them what they ought to 
be. In the first lesson on the different species of ideas, the 
abbe says, 

" The idea, for instance, which I have of Peter, is singular, 
or individual ; and as the idea of man is general relatively to 
the ideas of a nobleman and a citizen, it is particular as it re- 
lates to the idea of animal."* 

" Relatively to the ideas of a nobleman and a citizen." 
What a long explanation upon these words there must have 
been between the abbe and the prince ! The whole view of 
society must have been opened at once, or the prince must 
have swallowed prejudices and metaphysics together. To 
make these things familiar to a child, Condillac says, that we 
must bring a few or many examples ; but where shall we 
find examples ? Where shall we find proper words to ex- 
press to a child ideas of political relations mingled with meta- 
physical subtleties ? 

Through this whole chapter, on particular and general 
ideas, the abbe is secretly intent upon a dispute began or re- 
vived in the thirteenth century, and not yet finished, between 
the Nominalists and the Realists ; but a child knows nothing 
of this. 



* L'idee, par exemple, que j'ai de Pierre, est singuliere ou individuelle, et 
comme l'idee de hoinme est generate par rapport aux idees de noble et de ro- 
turier, elle est particuliere par rapport a l'idee d'animal. Legons Prelimi- 
naires, vol. i. p. 43. 



books. 229 

In the article 'f On the Power of Thinking," an article 
which he acknowledges to be a little difficult, he observes, 
that the great point is to make the child comprehend what is 
meant by attention ; " for as soon as he understands that, all 
the rest," he assures us, " will be easy." Is it then of less 
consequence, that the child should learn the habit of atten- 
tion, than that he should learn the meaning of the word ? 
Granting, however, that the definition of this word is of con- 
sequence, that definition should be made proportionally clear. 
The tutor, at least, must understand it, before he can hope to 
explain it to his pupil. Here it is : 

" * * * when amongst many sensations which you expe- 
rience at the same time, the direction of the organs makes you 
take notice of one, so that you do not observe the others any 
longer, this sensation becomes what we call attention."* 

This is not accurate ; it is not clear whether the direction 
of the organs be the cause, or the effect, of attention ; or 
whether it be only a concomitant of the sensation. Attention, 
we know, can be exercised upon abstract ideas ; for this ob- 
jection M. Condillac has afterwards a provisional clause, but 
the original definition remains defective, because the direction 
of the organs is not, though it be stated as such, essential : 
besides, we are told only, that the sensation described be- 
comes (devient) what we call attention. What attention ac- 
tually is, we are still left to discover. The matter is made 
yet more difficult ; for when we are just fixed in the belief, 
that attention depends " upon our remarking one sensation, 
and not remarking others which we may have at the same 
time," we are in the next chapter given to understand, that 
" in comparison we may have a double attention, or tzvo atten- 
tions, which are only two sensations, which make themselves 
be taken notice of equally, and consequently comparison con- 
sists only of sensations."! 

The doctrine of simultaneous ideas here glides in, and we 
concede unawares all that is necessary to the abbe's favourite 
system, " that sensation becomes successively attention, mem- 
ory, comparison, judgment, and reflection ;j and that the art 
of reasoning is reducible to a series of identic propositions." 



* Ainsi lorsque, de plusiers sensations qui se font en meme temps sur vous, 
la direction des organs vous en fait reinarquer une, de maniere que vous ne 
reraarquez plus les autres, cette sensation devient ce que nous appellons atten- 
tion. Legons Preliminaires, p. 46. 

f " La Comparison n'est done qu'une double attention. Nous venons de 
voir que l'attention n'est qu'une sensation qui se fait remarquer. Deux atten- 
tions ne sont done que deux sensations reinarquer egalement ; et par conse- 
quence il n'y a dans la comparaison que des sensations." Legons JPre'limi- 
naires, p. 47. 

% V. Art de Penser, p. 324. 



230 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Without, at present, attempting to examine this system, we 
may observe, that in education it is more necessary to pre- 
serve the mind from prejudice, than to prepare it for the 
adoption of any system. Those who have attended to meta- 
physical proceedings, know, that if a few apparently trifling 
concessions be made in the beginning of the business, a man 
of ingenuity may force us, in the end, to acknowledge what- 
ever he pleases. It is impossible that a child can foresee 
these consequences, nor is it probable that he should have 
paid such accurate attention to the operations of his own 
mind, as to be able to detect the fallacy, or to feel the truth, 
of his tutor's assertions. A metaphysical catechism may 
readily be taught to children ; they may learn to answer al- 
most as readily as Trenck answered in his sleep to the guards 
who regularly called to him every night at midnight. Chil- 
dren may answer expertly to the questions, " What is atten- 
tion ? What is memory 1 What is imagination ? What is the 
difference between wit and judgment ? How many sorts of 
ideas have you, and which are they ?" But when they are 
perfect in their responses to all these questions, how much are 
they advanced in real knowledge ? 

Allegory has mixed with metaphysics almost as much as 
with poetry ; personifications of memory and imagination are 
familiar to us ; to each have been addressed odes and son- 
nets, so that we almost believe in their individual existence, 
or at least we are become jealous of the separate attributes of 
these ideal beings. This metaphysical mythology may be' 
ingenious and elegant, but it is better adapted to the pleasures 
of poetry than to the purposes of reasoning. Those who have 
been accustomed to respect and believe in it, will find it diffi- 
cult soberly to examine any argument upon abstract subjects ; 
their favourite prejudices will retard them when they attempt 
to advance in the art of reasoning. All accurate metaphys- 
ical reasoners have perceived, and deplored, the difficulties 
which the prepossessions of education have thrown in their 
way ; and they have been obliged to waste their time and 
powers in fruitless attempts to vanquish these in their own 
minds, or in those of their readers. Can we wish in educa- 
tion to perpetuate similar errors, and to transmit to another 
generation the same artificial imbecility 1 Or can we avoid 
these evils, if with our present habits of thinking and speak- 
ing, we attempt to teach metaphysics to children of seven 
years old ? 

A well educated, intelligent young man, accustomed to ac- 
curate reasoning, yet brought up without any metaphysical 
prejudices, would be a treasure to a metaphysician to cross 
examine : he would be eager to hear the unprejudiced youth's 
evidence, as the monarch, who had ordered a child to be shut 



BOOKS. 231 

up, without hearing one word of any human language, from 
infancy to manhood, was impatient to hear what would be the 
first word that he uttered. But though we wish extremely 
well to the experiments of metaphysicians, we are more in- 
tent upon the advantage which our unprejudiced pupils 
would themselves derive from their judicious education : pro- 
bably they would, coming fresh to the subject, make some 
discoveries in the science of metaphysics : they would have 
no paces* to show ; perhaps they might advance a step or 
two on this difficult ground. 

When we object to the early initiation of novices into met- 
aphysical mysteries, we only recommend it to preceptors not 
to teach ; let pupils learn whatever they please, or whatever 
they can, without reading any metaphysical books, and with- 
out hearing any opinions, or learning any definitions by rote ; 
children may reflect upon their own feelings, and they should 
be encouraged to make accurate observations upon their own 
minds. Sensible children will soon, for instance, observe the 
effect of habit, which enables them to repeat actions with 
ease and facility, which they have frequently performed. 
The association of ideas, as it assists them to remember par- 
ticular things, will soon be noticed, though not, perhaps, in 
scientific words. The use of the association of pain or pleas- 
ure, in the form of what we call reward and punishment, may 
probably be early perceived. Children will be delighted 
with these discoveries if they are suffered to make them, and 
they will apply this knowledge in their own education. Tri- 
fling daily events will recal their observations, and experience 
will confirm, or correct, their juvenile theories. But if met- 
aphysical books, or dogmas, are forced upon children in the 
form of lessons, they will, as such, be learned by rote, and 
forgotten. 

To prevent parents from expecting as much as the Abb6 
Condillac does from the comprehension of pupils of six or 
seven years old upon abstract subjects, and to enable precep- 
tors to form some idea of the perfect simplicity in which chil- 
dren, unprejudiced upon metaphysical questions, would ex- 
press themselves, we give the following little dialogues, word 
for word, as they passed : 

1780. Father. Where do you think ? 

A . (Six and a half years old.) In my mouth. 

Ho . (Five years and a half old.) In my stomach ? 

Father. Where do you feel that you are glad, or sorry ? 

A . In my stomach. 

Ho . In my eyes. 



* V. Dunciad 



232 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 

Father. What are your senses for ? 

Ho -. To know things. 

Without any previous conversation, Ho (five years 

and a half old) said to her mother, " I think you will be glad 
my right foot is sore, because you told me I did not lean 
enough upon my left foot." This child seemed, on many oc- 
casions, to have formed an accurate idea of the use of pun- 
ishment, considering it always as pain given to cure us of 
some fault, or to prevent us from suffering more pain in fu- 
ture. 

April, 1792. H , a boy nine years and three quarters 

old, as he was hammering at a work-bench, paused for a short 
time, and then said to his sister, who was in the room with 
him, " Sister, I observe that when I don't look at my right 
hand when I hammer, and only think where it ought to hit, 
1 can hammer much better than when I look at it. I don't 
know what the reason of that is ; unless it is because I think 
in my head." 

M . I am not sure, but I believe that we do think in our 

heads. 

H . Then, perhaps, my head is divided into two parts, 

and that one thinks for one arm, and one for the other ; so 
that when I want to strike with my right arm, I think where 
I want to hit the wood, and then, without looking at it, I can 
move my arm in the right direction : as when my father is 
going to write, he sometimes sketches it. 

M . What do you mean, my dear, by sketching it ? 

H . Why, when he moves his hand (flourishes) without 

touching the paper with the pen. And at first, when I want 
to do any thing, I cannot move my hand as I mean ; but after 
being used to it, then I can do much better. I don't know 
why. 

After going on hammering for some time, he stopped again, 
and said, " There's another thing I wanted to tell you. 
Sometimes I think to myself, that it is right to think of things 
that are sensible, and then when I want to set about thinking 
of things that are sensible, I cannot ; 1 can only think of 
that over and over again." 

M . You can only think of what ? 

H . Of those words. They seem to be said to me 

over and over again, till I'm quite tired, " That it is right to 
think of things that have some sense." 

The childish expressions in these remarks have not been 
altered, because we wished to show exactly how children at 
this age express their thoughts. If M. Condillac had been 
used to converse with children, he surely would not have ex- 
pected, that any boy of seven years old could have under- 



books. 233 

stood his definition of attention, and his metaphysical pre- 
liminary lessons. 

After these preliminary lessons, we have a sketch of the 
prince of Parma's subsequent studies. M. Condillac says, 
that his royal highness (being not yet eight years old) was 
now " perfectly well acquainted with the system of intellect- 
ual operations. He comprehended already the production of 
his ideas ; he saw the origin and the progress of the habits 
which he had contracted, and he perceived how he could 
substitute just ideas for the false ones which had been given 
to him, and good habits instead of the bad habits which he 
had been suffered to acquire. He had become so quickly fa- 
miliar with all these things, that he retraced their connexion 
without effort, quite playfully."* 

This prince must have been a prodigy ! After having made 
him reflect upon his own infancy, the abbe judged that the 
infancy of the world would appear to his pupil " the most cu- 
rious subject, and the most easy to study." The analogy be- 
tween these two infancies seems to exist chiefly in words ; it 
is not easy to gratify a child's curiosity concerning the infan- 
cy of the world. Extracts from L'Origine des Loix, by M. 
Goguet, with explanatory notes, were put into the prince's 
hands, to inform him of what happened in the commence- 
ment of society. These were his evening studies. In the 
mornings he read the French poets, Boileau, Moliere, Cor- 
neille, and Racine. Racine, as we are particularly informed, 
was., in the space of one year, read over a dozen times. 
Wretched prince ! Unfortunate Racine ! The abbe acknow- 
ledges, that at first these authors were not understood with 
the same ease as the preliminary lessons had been : every 
word stopped the prince, and it seemed as if every line were 
written in an unknown language. This is not surprising, for 
how is it possible that a boy of seven or eight years old, who 
could know nothing of life and manners, could taste the wit 
and humour of Moliere ; and, incapable as he must have 
been of sympathy with the violent passions of tragic heroes 
and heroines, how could he admire the lofty dramas of Ra- 
cine ? We are willing to suppose, that the young prince of 
Parma was quick, and well informed for his age ; but to judge 



* Motif des Etudes qui ont ete faites apres Legons Pre'Iiminaires, p. 67. Le 
jeune prince connoissoit deja la systeme des operations de son ame, il com- 
prenoit la generation de ses idees, il voyoit 1'origine et le progres des habi- 
tudes qu'il avoit contractees, et il concevoit comment il pouvoit substituer des 
idees justes aux idees fausses qu'on lui avoit donnees, et de bonnes habitudes 
aux mauvaises qu'on lui avoit laisse prendre. 11 s'dtoit familierise' si prompte- 
ment avec toutes ces choses, qu'il s'en retragoit la suite sans effort, et coinme 
•n badinant. 
30 



2#A 



ruACTICAL EDUCATION. 



of what is practicable, we must produce examples from com- 
mon life, instead of prodigies. 

S , a boy of nine years old, of whose abilities the read- 
er will be able to form some judgment from anecdotes in the 
following pages, whose understanding was not wholly unculti- 
vated, when he was between nine and ten years old, expres- 
sed a wish to read some of Shakspeare's plays. King John 
was given to him. After the book had been before him for 
one winter's evening, he returned it to his father, declaring 
that he did not understand one word of the play ; he could 
not make out what the people were about, and he did not wish 

to read any more of it. His brother H , at twelve years 

old, had made an equally ineffectual attempt to read Shak- 
speare; he was also equally decided and honest in expressing 
his dislike to it; he was much surprised at seeing his sister 
B — — , who was a year or two older than himself, reading 
Shakspeare with great avidity, and he frequently asked what 
it was in that book that could entertain her. Two years af- 

tenvards, when H was between fourteen and fifteen, he 

made another trial, and he found that he understood the lan- 
guage of Shakspeare without any difficulty. He read all the 
historical plays with the greatest eagerness, and particularly 
seized the character of Falsiaff. He gave a humourous de- 
script ion of the figure and dress which he supposed Sir John 
should have, of his manner of sitting, speaking, and walking. 

Probably, if H had been pressed to read Shakspeare at 

the time when he did not understand it, he might never have 
read these plays with real pleasure during his whole life. 
Two years increase prodigiously the vocabulary and the 
ideas of young people, and preceptors should consider, that 
what we call literary taste, cannot be formed without a va- 
riety of knowledge. The productions of our ablest writers 
cannot please, until we are familiarized to the ideas which 
•they contain, or to which they allude.* 

Poetry is usually supposed to be well suited to the taste 
and capacity of children. In the infancy of taste and of el- 
oquence, rhetorical language is constantly admired ; the bold 
expression of strong feeling, and the simple description of the 
beauties of nature, are found to interest both cultivated and 
uncultivated minds. To understand descriptive poetry, no 
previous knowledge is required, beyond what common obser- 
vation and sympathy supply ; the analogies and transitions of 
thought are slight and obvious; no labour of attention is de- 
manded, no active effort of the mind is requisite to follow 



* As this page was sent over to us for correction, we seize the opportunity 
of expressing our wish, that" Botanical Dialogues, by a Ladj'," had coiwe 
sooner to our hands ; it contains much that we think peculiarly valuable. 



books. 235 

them. The pleasures of simple sensation are, by descriptive 
poetry, recalled to the imagination, and we live over again 
our past lives without increasing, and without desiring to in- 
crease, our stock of knowledge. If these observations be 
just, there must appear many reasons, why even that species 
of poetry which they can understand, should not be the ear- 
ly study of children ; from time to time it may be an agree 
able amusement, but it should not become a part of their dai- 
ly occupations. We do not want to retrace perpetually in 
their memories a few musical words, or a few simple sensa- 
tions ; our object is to enlarge the sphere of our pupil's ca- 
pacity, to strengthen the habits of attention, and to exercise 
all the powers of the mind. The inventive and the reason- 
ing faculties must be injured by the repetition of vague ex- 
pressions, and of exaggerated description, with which most 
poetry abounds. Childhood is the season for observation, 
and those who observe accurately, will afterwards be able 
to describe accurately : but those, who merely read descrip- 
tions, can present us with nothing but the pictures of pictures,, 
We have reason to believe, that children, who have not been 
accustomed to read a vast deal of poetry, are not, for that 
reason, less likely to excel in poetic language. The reader 
will judge from the following explanations of Gray's Hymn 
to Adversity, that the boy to whom they were addressed, was 
not much accustomed to read even the most popular English 
poetry ; yet this is the same child, who a few months after- 
wards, wrote the translation from Ovid, of the Cave of Sleep, 
and who gave the extempore description of a summer's even- 
ing in tolerably good language. 

Jan. 1796. S (nine years old) learned by heart the 

Hymn to Adversity. When he came to repeat this poem, he 
did not repeat it well, and he had it not perfectly by heart. 
His father suspected that he did not understand it, and he ex- 
amined him with some care. 

Father. " Purple tyrants !" Why purple ? 

S . Because purple is a colour something like red and 

black ; and tyrants look red and black. 

Father. No. Kings were formerly called tyrants, and 
they wore purple robes : the purple of the ancients is suppo- 
sed to be not the colour which we call purple, but that which 
we call scarlet. 

" When first thy sire to send on earth 
Virtue, his darling child, design'd, 
To thee he gave the heavenly birth, 
And bade to form her infant mind." 

When S was asked who was meant in these lines by 

" thy sire," he frowned terribly ; but after some deliberation. 



236 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

he discovered that " thy sire" meant Jove, the father, or sire 
of Adversity : still he was extremely puzzled with " the 
heavenly birth." First he thought that the heavenly birth 
was the birth of Adversity ; but upon recollection, the heav- 
enly birth was to be trusted to Adversity, therefore she could 
not be trusted with the care of herself. S at length dis- 
covered, that Jove must have had two daughters, and he said 
he supposed that Virtue must have been one of these daugh- 
ters, and that she must have been sister to Adversity, who 
was to be her nurse, and who was to form her infant mind : 
he now perceived that the expression, " Stern, rugged nurse," 
referred to Adversity ; before this, he said, he did not know 
who it meant, whose " rigid lore" was alluded to in these two 
lines, or who bore it with patience. 

11 Stern, rugged nurse, thy rigid lore 
With patience many a year she bore." 

The following stanza S repeated a second time, as if 

he did not understand it. 

" Scared at thy frown terrific fly 

Self pleasing follies, idle brood, 

Wild laughter, noise, and thoughtless joy, 

And leave us leisure to be good. 

Light they disperse, and with them go 

The summer friend, the flattering foe ; 

By vain prosperity receiv'd, 

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd." 

Father. Why does the poet say wild laughter ? 
S— — . It means, not reasonable. 
Father. Why is it said, 

" By vain prosperity receiv'd, 

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd ?" 

S . Because the people, I suppose, when they were in 

prosperity before, believed them before, but I think that seems 
confused. 

" Oh gently on thy suppliant's head, 
Dread goddess, lay thy chastening hand" 

S — — did no t seem to comprehend the first of these two 
lines ; and upon cross examination, it appeared that he did 
not know the meaning of the word suppliant ; he thought it 
meant " a person who supplies us." 

" Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, 
Nor circled by the vengeful band. 
As by the impious thou art seerf." 



books. 237 

It may appear improbable, that a child who did not know 
the meaning of the word suppliant, should understand the 

Gorgon terrors, and the vengeful band, yet it was so : S 

understood these lines distinctly ; he said, " Gorgon terrors, 
yes, like the head of Gorgon." He was at this time translat- 
ing from Ovid's Metamorphoses ; and it happened that his 
father had explained to him the ideas of the ancients con- 
cerning the furies ; besides this, several people in the family 
had been reading Potter's iEschylus, and the furies had been 
the subject of conversation. From such accidental circum- 
stances as these, children often appear, in the same instant 
almost, to be extremely quick, and extremely slow of com- 
prehension ; a preceptor who is well acquainted with all his 
pupil's previous knowledge, can rapidly increase his stock of 
ideas by turning every accidental circumstance to account: 
but if a tutor persists in forcing a child to a regular course of 
study, all his ideas must be collected, not as they are wanted 
in conversation or in real life, but as they are wanted to get 
through a lesson or a book. It is not surprising, that M. Con- 
dillac found such long explanations necessary for his young- 
pupil in reading the tragedies of Racine ; he says, that he 
was frequently obliged to translate the poetry into prose, and 
frequently the prince could gather only some general idea of 
the whole drama, without understanding the parts. We can- 
not help regretting, that the explanations have not been pub- 
lished for the advantage of future preceptors ; they must have 
been almost as difficult as those for the preliminary lessons. 
As we are convinced that the art of education can be best 
improved by the registering of early experiments, we are 
very willing to expose such as have been made, without fear 
of fastidious criticism or ridicule. 

May 1, 1796. A little poem, called " The Tears of Old 
May-day," published in the second volume of the World, was 

read to S . Last May-day the same poem had been read 

to him ; he then liked it much, and his father wished to see 
what effect it would have upon this second reading. The 

pleasure of novelty was worn off, but S felt new pleasure 

from his having, during the last year, acquired a great num- 
ber of new ideas, and especially some knowledge of ancient 
mythology, which enabled him to understand several allusions 
in the poem which had before been unintelligible to him. 
He had become acquainted with the muses, the graces, Cyn- 
thia, Philomel, Astrea, who are all mentioned in this poem : 
he now knew something about the Hesperian fruit, Amalthea's 
horn, choral dances, Libyan Amnion, &c. which are alluded 
to in different lines of the poem : he remembered the expla- 
nation which his father had given him the preceding year, of 
a line which alludes to the island of Atalantis : 



238 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

" Then vanished many a sea-girt isle and grove, 
Their forests floating on the vvat'ry plain ; 
Then famed for arts, and laws deriv'd from Jove, 
My Atalantis sunk beneath the main." 

-, whose imagination had been pleased with the idea 



of the fabulous island of Atalantis, recollected what he had 
heard of it ; but he had forgotten the explanation of another 
stanza of this poem, which he had heard at the same time : 

" To her no more Augusta's wealthy pride, 
Pours the full tribute from Potosi's mine ; 
Nor fresh blown garlands village maids provide, 
A purer offering at her rustic shrine." 

S forgot that he had been told that London was for* 

merly called Augusta ; that Potosi's mines contained silver ; 
and that pouring the tribute from Potosi's mines, alludes to 
the custom of hanging silver tankards upon the May-poles in 
London on May-day; consequently the beauty of this stanza 
was entirely lost upon him. A iew circumstances were now 

told to S , which imprinted the explanation effectually in 

his memory : his father told him, that the publicans, or those 
who keep public houses in London, make it a custom to lend 
their silver tankards to the poor chimney-sweepers and milk- 
maids, who go in procession through the streets on May-day. 
The confidence that is put in the honesty of these poor people, 
pleased S , and all these circumstances fixed the princi- 
pal idea more firmly in his mind. 

The following lines could please him only by their sound, 
the first time he heard them : 

" Ah ! once to fame and bright dominion born, 

The earth and smiling ocean saw me rise, 
With time coeval, and the star of morn, 

The first, the fairest daughter of the skies. 

" Then, when at heaven's prolific mandate sprung 

The radiant beam of new-created day, 
Celestial harps, to airs of triumph strung, 

Hail'd the glad dawn, and angels call'd me May. 

" Space in her empty regions heard the sound, 
And hills and dales, and rocks and vallies rung ; 

The sun exulted in his glorious round, 

And shouting planets in their courses sung." 

The idea which the ancients had of the music of the spheres 

was here explained to S , and some general notion was 

given to him of the harmonic numbers. 

What a number of new ideas this little poem served to in- 
troduce into the mind ! These explanations being given pre- 
cisely at the time when they were wanted, fixed the ideas in 
the memory in their proper places, and associated knowledge 



BOOKS. 239 

with the pleasures of poetry. Some of the effect of a poem 
must, it is true, be lost by interruptions and explanations ; 
but we must consider the general improvement of the under- 
standing, and not merely the cultivation of poetic taste. In 
the instance which we have just given, the pleasure which the 
boy received from the poem, seemed to increase in proportion 
to the exactness with which it was explained. The succeed- 
ing year, on May-day 1 797, the same poem was read to him 
for the third time, and he appeared to like it better than he 
had done upon the first reading. If, instead of perusing Ra- 
cine twelve times in one year, the young prince of Parma had 
read any one play or scene at different periods of his educa- 
tion, and had been led to observe the increase of pleasure 
which he felt from being able to understand what he read 
better each succeeding time than before, he would probably 
have improved more rapidly in his taste for poetry, though 
he might not have known Racine by rote quite so early as at 
eight years old. 

We considered parents almost as much as children, when 
we advised that a great deal of poetry should not be read by 
very young pupils ; the labour and difficulty of explaining it 
can be known only to those who have tried the experiment. 
The Elegy in a country church-yard, is one of the most pop- 
ular poems, which is usually given to children to learn by 
heart ; it cost at least a quarter of an hour to explain to intel- 
ligent children, the youngest of whom was at the time nine 
years old, the first stanza of that elegy. And we have heard 
it asserted by a gentleman not unacquainted with literature, 
that perfectly to understand l'Allegro and II Penseroso, re- 
quires no inconsiderable portion of ancient and modern know- 
ledge. It employed several hours on different days to read 
and explain Comus, so as to make it intelligible to a boy of 
ten years, who gave his utmost attention to it. The explana- 
tions on this poem were found to be so numerous and intri- 
cate, that we thought it best not to produce them here. Ex- 
planations which are given by a reader, can be given with 
greater rapidity and effect, than any which a writer can give 
to children : the expression of the countenance is advanta- 
geous, the sprightliness of conversation keeps the pupils 
awake, and the connexion of the parts of the subject can be 
carried on better in speaking and reading, than it can be in 
written explanations. Notes are almost always too formal, or 
too obscure; they explain what was understood more .plainly 
before any illustration was attempted, or they leave us in the 
dark the moment we want to be enlightened. Wherever pa- 
rents or preceptors can supply the place of notes and com- 
mentators, they need not think their time ill bestowed. If 
they cannot undertake these troublesome explanations, they 



240 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

can surely reserve obscure poems for a later period of their 
pupils' education. Children, who are taught at seven or 
eight years old to repeat poetry, frequently get beautiful lines 
by rote, and speak them fluently, without in the least under- 
standing the meaning of the lines. The business of a poet is 
to please the imagination, and to move the passions : in pro- 
portion as his language is sublime or pathetic, witty or satiri- 
cal, it must be unfit for children. Knowledge cannot be de- 
tailed, or accurately explained, in poetry ; the beauty of an 
allusion depends frequently upon the elliptical mode of ex- 
pression, which passing imperceptibly over all the interme- 
diate links in our associations, is apparent only when it 
touches the ends of the chain. Those who wish to instruct, 
must pursue the opposite system. 

In Doctor Wilkins's Essay on Universal Language, he pro- 
poses to introduce a note similar to the common note of admi- 
ration, to give the reader notice when any expression is used 
in an ironical or in a metaphoric sense. Such a note would 
be of great advantage to children : in reading poetry, they 
are continually puzzled between the obvious and the meta- 
phoric sense of the words.* The desire to make children 
learn a vast deal of poetry by heart, fortunately for the un- 
derstanding of the rising generation, does not rage with such 
violence as formerly. Dr. Johnson successfully laughed at 
infants lisping out, " Angels and ministers of grace, defend 
us." His reproof was rather ill-natured, when he begged two 
children who were produced, to repeat some lines to him, 
" Can't the pretty dears repeat them both together?" But 
this reproof has probably prevented many exhibitions of the 
same kind. 

Some people learn poetry by heart for the pleasure of 
quoting it in conversation ; but the talent for quotation, both 
in conversation and in writing, is now become so common, 
that it cannot confer immortality.! Every person has by 
rote certain passages from Shakspeare and Thomson, Gold- 
smith and Gray : these trite quotations fatigue the literary 
ear, and disgust the taste of the public. To this change in 
the fashion of the day, those who are influenced by fashion, 
will probably listen with more eagerness, than to all the rea- 
sons that have been offered. But to return to the prince of 
Parma. After reading Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, 
&c. the young prince's taste was formed, as we are assured 
by his preceptor, and he was now fit for the study of gram- 

* In Dr. Franklin's posthumous Essays, there is an excellent remark with 
respect to typography, as connected with the art of reading. The note of in- 
terrogation should be placed at the beginning, as well as at the end of a ques- 
tion ; it is sometimes so far distant, as to be out of the reach of an unpractised 
eye. 

t Young. 



BOOKS. 241 

mar. So much is due to the benevolent intentions of a man 
of learning and genius, who submits to the drudgery of writ- 
ing an elementary book on grammar, that even a critic must 
feel unwilling to examine it with severity. M. Condillac, in 
his attempt to write a rational grammar, has produced, if not 
a grammar fit for children, a philosophical treatise, which a 
well educated young person will read with great advantage at 
the age of seventeen or eighteen. All that is said of the nat- 
ural language of signs, of the language of action, of panto- 
mimes, and of the institution of M. I'Abbe l'Epee for teaching 
languages to the deaf and dumb, is not only amusing and in- 
structive to general readers, but, with slight alterations in the 
language, might be perfectly adapted to the capacity of chil- 
dren. But when the Abbe Condillac goes on to " Your High- 
ness knows what is meant by a system," he immediately for- 
gets his pupil's age. The reader's attention is presently deep- 
ly engaged by an abstract disquisition on the relative propor- 
tion, represented by various circles of different extent, of the 
wants, ideas, and language of savages, shepherds, commercial 
and polished nations, when he is suddenly awakened to the 
recollection, that all this is addressed to a child of eight years 
old : an allusion to the prince's little chair, completely rouses 
us from our reverie. 

" As 3'our little chair is made in the same form as mine, 
which is higher, so the system of ideas is fundamentally the 
same amongst savage and civilized nations ; it differs only in 
degrees of extension, as after one and the same model, seats 
of different heights have been made."* 

Such mistakes as these, in a work intended for a child, are 
so obvious, that they could not have escaped the penetration 
of a great man, had he known as much of the practice as he 
did of the theory of the art of teaching. 

To analyze a thought, and to show the construction of lan- 
guage, M. Condillac, in this volume on grammar, has chosen 
for an example a passage from an Eloge on Peter Corneille, 
pronounced before the French academy by Racine, on the 
reception of Thomas Corneille, who succeeded to Peter. It 
is in the French style of academical panegyric, a representa- 
tion of the chaotic state in which Corneille found the French 
theatre, and of the light and order which he diffused through the 
dramatic world by his creative genius. A subject less inter- 
esting, or more unintelligible to a child, could scarcely have 

* Comme votre petite chaise est faite sur le tnSme modele que la ir.ienne ; 
qui est plus glevee, ainsi le syst^me des idges est le me'me pour le fond chez les 
peuples sauvages et chez les peuples civilises ; il ne differe, qui parce qu'il est 
plus on moins etendu ; c'est un mfime modele d'apres lequel on a fait des 
sieges de different hauteur. — Grammaire, page 23. 
31 



242 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

been selected. The lecture on the anatomy of Racine's 
thought, lasts through fifteen pages ; according to all the rules 
of art, the dissection is ably performed, but most children will 
turn from the operation with disgust. 

The abbe Condillac's treatise on the art of writing, imme- 
diately succeeds to his grammar. The examples in this vol- 
ume are much better chosen ; they are interesting to all read- 
ers ; those especially from Madame de Sevigne's letters, which 
are drawn from familiar language and domestic life. The enu- 
meration of the figures of speech, and the classification of the 
flowers of rhetoric, are judiciously suppressed ; the catalogue 
of the different sorts of turns, phrases proper for maxims and 
principles, turns proper for sentiment, ingenious turns and 
quaint turns, stiff turns and easy turns, might perhaps, have 
been somewhat abridged. The observations on the effect of 
unity in the whole design, and in all the subordinate parts of 
a work, though they may not be new, are ably stated ; and 
the remark, that the utmost propriety of language, and the 
strongest effect of eloquence and reasoning, result from the 
greatest possible attention to the connexion of our ideas, is 
impressed forcibly upon the reader throughout this work. 

How far works of criticism in general are suited to chil- 
dren, remains to be considered. Such works cannot proba- 
bly suit their taste, because the taste for systematic criticism 
cannot arise in the mind until many books have been read; 
until the various species of excellence suited to different sorts 
of composition, have been perceived, and until the mind has 
made some choice of its own. It is true, that works of criti- 
cism may teach children to talk well of what they read ; they 
will be enabled to repeat what good judges have said of books. 
But this is not, or ought not to be, the object. After having 
been thus officiously assisted by a connoisseur, who points 
out to them the beauties of authors, will they be able after- 
wards to discover beauties without his assistance ? Or have 
they as much pleasure in being told what to admire, what to 
praise, and what to blame, as if they had been suffered to feel 
and to express their own feelings naturally ? In reading an 
interesting play, or beautiful poem, how often has a man of 
taste and genius execrated the impertinent commentator, who 
interrupts him by obtruding his ostentatious notes — " The 
reader will observe the beauty of this thought." " This is 
one of the finest passages in any author, ancient or modern." 
" The sense of this line, which all former annotators have 
mistaken, is obviously restored by the addition of the vowel 
i," &c. 

Deprived, by these anticipating explanations, of the use of 
his own common sense, the reader detests the critic, soon 
learns to disregard his references, and to skip over his learned 



BOOKS. 243 

truisms. Similar sensations, tempered by duty or by fear, may 
have been sometimes experienced by a vivacious child, who, 
eager to go on with what he is reading, is prevented from feeling 
the effect of the whole, by a premature discussion of its parts. 
We hope that no keen hunter of paradoxes will here exult in 
having detected us in a contradiction : we are perfectly 
aware, that but a few pages ago w T e exhibited examples of de- 
tailed explanations of poetry for children ; but these explana- 
tions were not of the criticising class ; they were not designed 
to tell young people what to admire, but simply to assist them 
to understand before they admired. 

Works of criticism are sometimes given to pupils, with the 
idea that they will instruct and form them in the art of writ- 
ing ; but few things can be more terrific or dangerous to the 
young writer, than the voice of relentless criticism. Hope 
stimulates, but fear depresses the active powers of the mind ; 
and how much have they to fear, who have continually be- 
fore their eyes the mistakes and disgrace. of others ; of others, 
who with superior talents have attempted and failed ! With 
a multitude of precepts and rules of rhetoric full in their 
memory, they cannot express the simplest of their thoughts ; 
and to write a sentence composed of members, which have 
each of them names of many syllables, must appear a most 
formidable and presumptuous undertaking. On the contra- 
ry, a child who, in books, and in conversation, has been used 
to hear and to speak correct language, and who has never 
been terrified with the idea, that to write, is to express his 
thoughts in some new and extraordinary manner, will natu- 
rally write as he speaks, and as he thinks. Making certain 
characters upon paper, to represent to others what he wishes 
to say* to them, will not appear to him a matter of dread and 
danger, but of convenience and amusement, and he will write 
prose without knowing it. 

Amongst some " Practical Essays,"! lately published, " to 
assist the exertions of youth in their literary pursuits," there 
is an essay on letter-writing, which might deter a timid child 
from ever undertaking such an arduous task as that of writing 
a letter. So much is said from Blair, from Cicero, from Quin- 
tilian ; so many things are requisite in a letter ; purity, neat- 
ness, simplicity ; such caution must be used to avoid " exotics 
transplanted from foreign languages, or raised in the hot-beds 
of affectation and conceit ;" such attention to the mother- 
tongue is prescribed, that the young nerves of the letter- 
writer must tremble when he takes up his pen. Besides, he 
is told that " he should be extremely reserved on the head of 
pleasantry," and that "as to sallies of wit, it is still more 
dangerous to let them fly at random ; but he may repeat the 

* Rousseau. t Milne's Well-bred Scholar. 



244 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

smart sayings of others if he will, or relate part of some droll 
adventure, to enliven his letter." 

The anxiety that parents and tutors frequently express, to 
have their children write letters, and good letters, often pre- 
vents the pupils from writing during the whole course of 
their lives. Letter-writing becomes a task and an evil to chil- 
dren ; whether they have any thing to say or not, write they 
must, this post or next, without fail, a pretty letter to some rela- 
tion or friend, who has exacted from them the awful promise 
of punctual correspondence. It is no wonder that school-boys 
and school-girls, in these circumstances, feel that necessity is 
not the mother of invention ; they are reduced to the humilia- 
ting misery of begging from some old practitioner a beginning, 
or an ending, and something to say to fill up the middle. 

Locke humorously describes the misery of a school-boy who 
is to write a theme ; and having nothing to say, goes about 
with the usual petition in these cases to his companions, " Pray 
give me a little sense." Would it not be better to wait until 
children have sense, before we exact from them themes and 
discourses upon literary subjects ? There is no danger, that 
those who acquire a variety of knowledge and numerous ideas, 
should not be able to find words to express them; but those 
who are compelled to find words before they have ideas, are 
in a melancholy situation. To form a style, is but a vague 
idea ; practice in composition, will certainly confer ease in 
writing, upon those who write when their minds are full of 
ideas ; but the practice of sitting with a melancholy face, with 
pen in hand, waiting for inspiration, will not much advance 
the pupil in the art of writing. We should not recommend 
it to a preceptor to require regular themes at stated periods 
from his pupils ; but whenever he perceives that a young 
inan is struck with any new ideas, or new circumstances, 
when he is certain that his pupil has acquired a fund of knowl- 
edge, when he finds in conversation that words flow readily 
upon certain subjects, he may, without danger, upon these 
subjects, excite his pupil to try his powers of writing. These 
trials need not be frequently made : when a young man has 
once acquired confidence in himself as a writer, he will cer- 
tainly use his talent whenever proper occasions present them- 
selves. The perusal of the best authors in the English lan- 
guage, will give him, if he adhere to these alone, sufficient 
powers of expression. The best authors in the English lan- 
guage are so well known, that it would be useless to enume- 
rate them. Dr. Johnson says, that whoever would acquire a 
pure English style, must give his days and nights to Addison. 
We do not, however, feel this exclusive preference for Addi- 
son's melodious periods ; his page is ever elegant, but some- 
times it is too diffuse. — Hume, Blackstone, and Smith, have a 



BOOKS. 245 

proper degree of strength and energy combined with their el- 
egance. Gibbon says, that the perfect composition and well- 
turned periods of Dr. Robertson, excited his hopes that he 
might one day become his equal in writing; but " the calm 
philosophy, the careless, inimitable beauties of his friend 
and rival Hume, often forced him to close the volume with a 
mixed sensation of delight and despair." From this testimo- 
ny we may judge, that a simple style appears to the best judg- 
es to be more difficult to attain, and more desirable, than that 
highly ornamented diction to which writers of inferior taste 
aspire. Gibbon tells us with great candour, that his friend 
Hume advised him to beware of the rhetorical style of French 
eloquence. Hume observed, that the English language, and 
English taste, do not admit of this profusion of ornament. 

Without meaning to enter at large into the subject, we have 
offered these remarks upon style for the advantage of those 
who are to direct the taste of young readers; what they ad- 
mire when they read, they will probably imitate when they 
write. We objected to works of criticism for young children, 
but we should observe, that at a later period of education, they 
will be found highly advantageous. It would be absurd to 
mark the precise age at which Blair's Lectures, or Condillac's 
Art d'Ecrire, ought to be read, because this should be decided 
by circumstances ; by the progress of the pupils in literature, 
and by the subjects to which their attention happens to have 
turned. Of these, preceptors, and the pupils themselves, must 
be the most competent judges. From the same wish to avoid 
all pedantic attempts to dictate, we have not given any regu- 
lar course of study in this chapter. Many able writers have 
laid down extensive plans of study, and have named the books 
that are essential to the acquisition of different branches of 
knowledge. Amongst others we may refer to Dr. Priestley's, 
which is to be seen at the end of his Essays on Education. We 
are sensible that order is necessary in reading, but we cannot 
think that the same order will suit all minds, nor do we imag- 
ine that a young person cannot read to advantage unless he 
pursue a given course of study. Men of sense will not be in- 
tolerant in their love of learned order. 

If parents would keep an accurate list of the books which 
their children read, of the ages at which they are read, it would 
be of essential service in improving the art of education. We 
might then mark the progress of the understanding with accu- 
racy, and discover, with some degree of certainty, the circum- 
stances on which the formation of the character and taste de- 
pend. Swift has given us a list of the books which he read 
during two years of his life ; we can trace the ideas that he ac- 
quired from them in his Laputa, and other parts of Gulliver's 
Travels. Gibbon's journal of his studies, and his account of 



246 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

universities, are very instructive to young students. So is the 
life of Franklin, written by himself. Madame Roland has 
left a history of her education ; and in the books she read in 
her early years, we see the formation of her character. Plu- 
tarch's Lives, she tells us, first kindled republican enthusiasm 
in her mind ; and she regrets that, in forming her ideas of uni- 
versal liberty, she had only a partial view of affairs. She 
corrected these enthusiastic ideas during the last moments of 
her life in prison. Had the impression which her study of 
the Roman history made upon her mind been known to an 
able preceptor, it might have been corrected in her early ed- 
ucation. When she was led to execution, she exclaimed, as 
she passed the statue of Liberty, " Oh Liberty, what crimes 
are committed in thy name !"* 

Formerly it was wisely said, " Tell me what company a 
man keeps, and I will tell you what he is ;" but since litera- 
ture has spread a new influence over the world, we must add, 
" Tell me what company a man has kept, and what books he 
has read, and I will tell you what he is." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON GRAMMAR, AND CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

As long as gentlemen feel a deficiency in their own educa- 
tion, when they have not a competent knowledge of the learn- 
ed languages, so long must a parent be anxious, that his son 
should not be exposed to the mortification of appearing infe- 
rior to others of his own rank. It is in vain to urge, that lan- 
guage is only the key to science ; that the names of things 
are not the things themselves ; that many of the words in our 
own language convey scarcely any, or at best but imperfect, 
ideas ; that the true genius, pronunciation, melody, and idiom 
of Greek, are unknown to the best scholars, and that it can- 
not reasonably be doubted, that if Homer or Xenophon were 
to hear their works read by a professor of Greek, they would 
mistake them for the sounds of an unknown language. All 
this is true ; but it is not the ambition of a gentleman to read 
Greek like an ancient Grecian, but to understand it as well as 
the generality of his contemporaries ; to know whence the 
terms of most sciences are derived, and to be able, in some 

* i( Oh Liberte, que de f'orfaits on commis en ton nam I" 
V. Appel k J'Impartielle Posterite. 



GRAMMAR, &C. 247 

degree, to trace the progress of mankind in knowledge and 
refinement, by examining the extent and combination of their 
different vocabularies. 

In some professions, Greek is necessary ; in all, a certain 
proficiency of Latin is indispensable; how, therefore, to ac- 
quire this proficiency in the one, and a sufficient knowledge 
of the other, with the least labour, the least waste of time, 
and the least danger to the understanding, is the material 
question. Some schoolmasters would add, that we must ex- 
pedite the business as much as possible : of this we may be 
permitted to doubt. Festina lente is one of the most judicious 
maxims in education, and those who have sufficient strength 
of mind to adhere to it, will find themselves at the goal, when 
their competitors, after all their bustle, are panting for breath, 
or lashing their restive steeds. We see some untutored chil- 
dren start forward in learning with rapidity : they seem to 
acquire knowledge at the very time it is wanted, as if by in- 
tuition ; whilst others, with whom infinite pains have been 
taken, continue in dull ignorance ; or, having accumulated a 
mass of learning, are utterly at a loss how to display, or how 
to use their treasures. What is the reason of this phenom- 
enon? and to which class of children would a parent wish 
his son to belong? In a certain number of years, after having 
spent eight hours a day in " durance vile," by the influ- 
ence of bodily fear, or by the infliction of bodily punish- 
ment, a regiment of boys may be drilled by an indefatigable 
usher into what are called scholars; but, perhaps, in the 
whole regiment not one shall ever distinguish himself, or ever 
emerge from the ranks. Can it be necessary to spend so 
many years, so many of the best years of life, in toil and 
misery ? We shall calculate the waste of time which arises 
from the study of ill written, absurd grammar, and exercise- 
books ; from the habits of idleness contracted by school-boys, 
and from the custom of allowing holydays to young students ; 
and we shall compare the result of this calculation with the 
time really necessary for the attainment of the same quantity 
of classical knowledge by rational methods. We do not en- 
ter into this comparison with any invidious intention, but sim- 
ply to quiet the apprehensions of parents ; to show them the 
possibility of their children's attaining a certain portion of 
learning within a given number of years, without the sacrifice 
of health, happiness, or the general powers of the under- 
standing. 

At all events, may we not begin by imploring the assist- 
ance of some able and friendly hand to reform the present 
generation of grammars and school-books ? For instance, is 
it indispensably necessary that a boy of seven years old 
should learn by rote, that " relative sentences are independ- 



248 PRACTICAL EDUCATIONS 

ent, i. e. no word in a relative sentence is governed either of 
verb, or adjective, that stands in another sentence, or depends 
upon any appurtenances of the relative; and that the Eng- 
lish word ' That' is always a relative when it may be turned 
into which in good sense, which must be tried by reading over 
the English sentence warily, and judging how the sentence 
will bear it, but when it cannot be altered, salvo sensu, it is a 
conjunction ?" Cannot we, for pity's sake, to assist the learn- 
er's memory, and to improve his intellect, substitute some 
sentences a little more connected, and perhaps a little more 
useful, than the following ? 

" I have been a soldier — You have babbled — Has the crow 
ever looked white? — Ye have exercised — Flowers have with- 
ered — We were in a passion — Ye lay down — Peas were 
parched — The lions did roar a while ago." 

In a book of Latin exercises,* the preface to which informs 
us, that " it is intended to contain such precepts of morality 
and religion, as ought most industriously to be inculcated into 
the heads of all learners, contrived so as that children may, 
as it were, insensibly suck in such principles as will be of use 
to them afterwards in the manly conduct and ordering of their 
lives," we might expect somewhat more of pure morality and 
sense, with rather more elegance of style, than appear in the 
following sentences : 

" I struck my sister with a stick, and was forced to flee in- 
to the woods ; but when I had tarried there awhile, I returned 
to my parents, and submitted myself to their mercy, and they 
forgave me my offence." 

" When my dear mother, unknown to my father, shall send 
me money, I will pay my creditors their debts, and provide 
a supper for all my friends in my chamber, without my broth- 
er's consent, and will make presents to all my relations." 

So the measure of maternal tenderness is the sum of money, 
which the dear mother, unknown to her husband, shall send 
to her son ; the measure of the son's generosity is the supper 
he is to give to all his friends in his chamber, exclusive of his 
poor brother, of whose offence we are ignorant. His munifi- 
cence is to be displayed in making presents to all his rela- 
tions, but in the mean time he might possibly forget to pay his 
debts, for "justice is a slow-paced virtue, and cannot keep 
pace with generosity." 

A reasonable notion of punishment, and a disinterested 
love of truth, is well introduced by the following picture. 
" My master's countenance was greatly changed when he 
found his beloved son guilty of a lie. Sometimes he was 



Garretson's Exercises, the tenth edition 



GRAMMAR, &C. 249 

pale with anger ; sometimes he was red with rage ; and in 
the mean time, he, poor boy, was trembling, (for what ?) for 
fear of punishment." Could the ideas of punishment and 
vengeance be more effectually joined, than in this portrait of 
the master red with rage ? After truth has been thus happily 
recommended, comes honesty. " Many were fellow-soldiers 
with valiant Jason when he stole the golden fleece : many 
were companions with him, but he bore away the glory of 
the enterprise." 

Valour, theft, and glory, are here happily combined. It 
will avail us nothing to observe, that the golden fleece has an 
allegorical meaning, unless we can explain satisfactorily the 
nature of an allegorical theft ; though to our classical taste 
this valiant Jason may appear a glorious hero, yet to the sim- 
pie judgment of children, he will appear a robber. It is fas- 
tidious, however, to object to Jason in the exercise-book, 
when we consider what children are to hear, and to hear with 
admiration, as they advance in their study of poetry and my- 
thology. 

Lessons of worldly wisdom, are not forgotten in our manual, 
which professes to teach " the manly conduct and ordering of life 1 '' 
to the rising generation. " Those men," we are told, " who have 
the most money, obtain the greatest honour amongst men. 
But then again, " a poor man is as happy without riches, if he 
can enjoy contentedness of mind, as the richest earl that cov- 
eteth greater honour." It may be useful to put young men 
upon their guard against hypocrites and knaves; but it is 
necessary to tell school-boys, that " it concerneth me, and all 
men, to look to ourselves, for the world is so full of knaves 
and hypocrites, that he is hard to be found who may be 
trusted?" That " they who behave themselves the most wa- 
rily of all men, and live more watchfully than others, may 
happen to do something, which (if it be divulged) may very 
much damnify their reputation ?" A knowledge of the world 
may be early requisite ; but is it not going too far, to assure 
young people, that " the nations of the world are at this time 
come to that pass of wickedness, that the earth is like hell, 
and many men have degenerated into devils ?" 

A greater variety of ridiculous passages from this tenth 
edition of Garretson's Exercise-book, might be selected for 
the reader's entertainment ; but the following specimens will 
be sufficient to satisfy him, that by this original writer, natu- 
ral history is as well taught as morality : 

Man. " Man is a creature of an upright body ; he walk- 
eth upright when he is on a journey; and when night ap- 
proaches, he lieth flat, and sleepeth." 

Horses. " A journey an hundred and fifty miles long, 
tireth an horse that hath not had a moderate feed of corn." 
32 



250 ntACTICAIi EDUCATION. 

Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. " The air is nearer the earth 
than the fire ; but the water is placed nearest to the earth, 
because these two elements compose but one body." 

It is an easy task, it will be observed, to ridicule absurdi- 
ty. It is easy to pull down what has been ill built ; but if we 
leave the ruins for others to stumble over, we do little good 
to society. Parents may reasonably say, if you take away 
from our children the books they have, give them better. 
They are not yet to be had, but if a demand for them be once 
excited, they will soon appear. Parents are now convinced, 
that the first books which children read, make a lasting im- 
pression upon them ; but they do not seem to consider 
spelling-books, and grammars, and exercise-books, as books, 
but only as tools for different purposes : these tools are often 
very mischievous ; if we could improve them, we should get 
our work much better done. The barbarous translations, 
which are put as models for imitation into the hands of school- 
boys, teach them bad habits of speaking and writing, which 
are sometimes incurable. For instance, in the fourteenth 
edition of Clarke's Cornelius Nepos, which the preface in- 
forms us was written by a man full of indignation for the com- 
mon practices of grammar-schools, by a man who laments 
that youth should spend their time " in tossing over the leaves 
of a dictionary, and hammering out such a language as the 
Latin," we might expect some better translation than the fol- 
lowing, to form the young student's style : 

" No body ever heard any other entertainment for the ears 
at his (Atticus's) meals than a reader, which we truly think 
very pleasant. Nor was there ever a supper at his house 
without some reading, that their guests might be entertained 
in their minds as well as their stomachs ; for he invited those 
whose manners were not different from his own." 

" He (Atticus) likewise had a touch at poetry, that he 
might not be unacquainted with this pleasure, we suppose. 
For he has related in verses the lives of those who excelled 
the Roman people in honour, and the greatness of their ex- 
ploits. So that he has described under each of their images, 
their actions and offices in no more than four or five verses, 
which is scarcely to be believed that such great things could 
be so briefly delivered." 

Those who, in reading these quotations, have perhaps ex- 
claimed, " Why must we go through this farrago of nonsense ?" 
should reflect, that they have now wasted but a few minutes of 
their time upon what children are doomed to study for hours 
and years. Jf a few pages disgust, what must be the effect of 
volumes in the same style ! and what sort of writing can we ex- 
pect from pupils who are condemned to such reading? The 
analogy of ancient and modern languages differs so materially. 



GRAMMAR, &C. 251 

that a literal translation of any ancient author can scarcely ba 
tolerated. Yet, in general, young scholars are under a necessi- 
ty of rendering their Latin lessons into English word for word, 
faithful to the taste of their dictionaries, or the notes in their 
translations. This is not likely to improve the freedom of 
their English style ; or, what is of much more consequence, 
is it likely to preserve in the pupil's mind a taste for litera- 
ture ? It is not the time that is spent in pouring over lexi- 
cons, it is not the multiplicity of rules learnt by wrote, nor 
yet is it the quantity of Latin words crammed into the memo- 
ry, which can give the habit of attention or the power of vol- 
untary exertion ; without these, you will never have time 
enough to teach ; with them, there will always be time enough 
to learn. — One half hour's vigorous application, is worth a 
whole day's constrained and yawning study. If we compare 
what from experience we know can be done by a child of 
ordinary capacity in a given time, with what he actually does 
in school-hours, we shall be convinced of the enormous waste 
of time incident to the common methods of instruction. Tu- 
tors are sensible of this ; but they throw the blame upon 
their pupils — " You might have learned your lesson in half 
the time, if you had chosen it." The children also are sensi- 
ble of this ; but they are not able or willing to prevent the 
repetition of the reproach. But exertion does not always de- 
pend upon the will of the boy ; it depends upon his previous 
habits, and upon the strength of the immediate motive which 
acts upon him. Some children of quick abilities, who have 
too much time allotted for their classical studies, are so fully 
sensible themselves of the pernicious effect this has upon their 
activity of mind, that they frequently defer getting their les- 
sons to the last moment, that they may be forced by a suffi- 
cient motive to exert themselves. In classes at public schools, 
the quick and the slow, the active and indolent, the stumbling 
and sure-footed, are all yoked together, and are forced to 
keep pace with one another : stupidity may sometimes be 
dragged along by the vigour of genius ; but genius is more 
frequently chained down by the weight of stupidity. We 
are well aware of the difficulties with which, the public pre- 
ceptor has to contend ; he is often compelled by his situation 
to follow ancient usage, and to continue many customs which 
he wishes to see reformed. Any reformation in the manner 
of instruction in these public seminaries, must be gradual, and 
will necessarily follow the conviction that parents may feel of 
its utility. Perhaps nothing can be immediately done, more 
practicably useful, than to simplify grammar, and to lighten as 
much as possible the load that is laid upon the memory. 
Without a multiplicity of masters, it would be impossible to 
suit instruction to the different capacities, and previous ac- 



252 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

quirements of a variety of pupils ; but in a private education, 
undoubtedly the task may be rendered much easier to the 
scholar and to the teacher; much jargon may be omitted; 
and what appears from want of explanation to be jargon, may 
be rendered intelligible by proper skill and attention. During 
the first lessons in grammar, and in Latin, the pupil need not 
be disgusted with literature, and we may apply all the princi- 
ples which we find on other occasions successful in the man- 
agement of the attention.* Instead of keeping the attention 
feebly obedient for an idle length of time, we should fix it de- 
cidedly by some sufficient motive for as short a period as 
may be requisite to complete the work that we would have 
done. As we apprehend, that even where children are to be 
sent to school, it will be a great advantage to them to have 
some general notions of grammar, to lead them through the 
labyrinth of common school books, we think that we shall 
do the public preceptor an acceptable service, if we point 
out the means by which parents may, without much labour 
to themselves, render the first principles of grammar intelligi- 
ble and familiar to their children. 

We may observe, that children pay the strictest attention 
to the analogies of the language that they speak. Where 
verbs are defective or irregular, they supply the parts that 
are wanting with wonderful facility, according to the common 
form of other verbs. They make all verbs regular. 1 goea', 
I readeJ, I writed, &c. By a proper application of this fac- 
culty, much time may be saved in teaching children grammar, 
much perplexity, and much of that ineffectual labour which 
stupifies and dispirits the understanding. By gentle degrees, 
a child may be taught the relations of words to each other in 
common conversation, before he is presented with the first 
sample of grammatical eloquence in Lilly's Accidence. " There 
be eight parts of speech." A phrase which in some parts of 
this kingdom would perhaps be understood, but which to the 
generality of boys who go to school, conveys no meaning, and 
is got by heart without reflection, and without advantage. A 
child can, however, be made to understand these formidable 
parts of speech ; if they are properly introduced tp his ac- 
quaintance : he can comprehend, that some of the words which 
he hears express that something is done ; he will readily per- 
ceive, that if something is done, somebody, or something must 
do it: he will distinguish with much facility the word in any 
common sentence which expresses an action, and that which 
denotes the agent. Let the reader try the experiment imme- 
diately upon any child of six or seven years old who has not 
learned grammar, and he may easily ascertain the fact. 

* V. Chapter on Attention. 



GRAMMAR, &C. 253 

A few months ago, Mr. gave his little daughter H- 



a child of five years old, her first lesson in English grammar; 
but no alarming book of grammar was produced upon the oc- 
casion, nor did the father put on an unpropitious gravity of 
countenance. He explained to the smiling child the nature 
of a verb, a pronoun, and a substantive. 

Then he spoke a short familiar sentence, and asked H , 

to try if she could find out which word in it was a verb, which 
a pronoun, and which a substantive. The little girl found 
them all out most successfully, and formed no painful associa- 
tions with her first grammatical lesson. But though our pupil 
may easily understand, he will easily forget our first explana- 
tions ; but provided he understands them at the moment, we 
should pardon his forgetfulness, and we should patiently re- 
peat the same exercise several days successively ; a few min- 
utes at each lesson will be sufficient, and the simplest senten- 
ces, such as children speak themselves, will be the best exam- 
ples. Mr. , after having talked four or five times, for a 

few minutes at a time, with his son S , when S was 

between five and six years old, about grammar, asked him if 
he knew what a pronoun meant ? The boy answered, " A 
word that is said instead of a substantive." As these words 
might have been merely remembered by rote, the father 
questioned his pupil further, and asked him to name any pro- 
noun that he recollected. S immediately said, " /a pro- 
noun." " Name another," said his father. The boy answer- 
ed after some pause, as if he doubted whether it was or was 
not a pronoun, A. Now it would have been very imprudent 
to have made a sudden exclamation at the child's mistake. The 
father, without showing any surprise, gently answered, "No, 
my dear, a does not stand in the place of any substantive. We 
say a man, but the word a does not mean a man, when it is 
said by itself — Does it ?" 

S . No. 

Father. Then try if you can find out a word that does. 

S . He and Sir. 

Sir does stand in conversation, in the place of a man or 
gentleman, therefore the boy, even by this mistake, showed 
that he had formed, from the definition that had been given 
to him, a general idea of the nature of a pronoun, and at all 
events he exercised his understanding upon the affair, which 
is the principal point we ought to have in view. 

An interjection is a part of speech familiar to children. Mr. 
Home Tooke is bitter in his contempt for it, and will scarcely 
admit it into civilized company. " The brutish inarticulate 
interjection, which has nothing to do with speech, and is only 
the miserable refuge of the speechless, has been permitted to 
usurp a place amongst words," &c. — " The neighing of a horse, 



254 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

the lowing of a cow, the barking of a dog, the purring of a cat ; 
sneezing, coughing, groaning, shrieking, and every other in- 
voluntary convulsion with oral sound, have almost as good a 
title to be called parts of speech, as interjections have." 

Mr. Home Tooke would have been pleased with the sagac- 
ity of a child of five years old (S ) who called laughing 

an interjection. Mr. gave S a slight pinch, in or- 
der to produce " an involuntary convulsion with oral sound." 
And when the interjection Oh ! was uttered by the boy, he 
was told by his father, that the word was an interjection ; and, 
that " any word or noise, that expresses a sudden feeling of 

the mind, may be called an interjection." S immediately 

said, " is laughing an interjection, then ?" We hope that the 
candid reader will not imagine, that we produce these sayings 
of children of four or five years old, without some sense of the 
danger of ridicule ; but we wish to give some idea of the sort of 
simple answers which children are likely to make in their 
first grammatical lessons. If too much is expected from them, 
the disappointment which must be quickly felt, and will be 
quickly shown by the preceptor, will discourage the pupil. 
We must repeat, that the first steps should be frequently re- 
traced : a child should be for some weeks accustomed to dis- 
tinguish an active verb, and its agent, or nominative case, 
from every other word in a sentence, before we attempt to ad- 
vance. The objects of actions are the next class of words 
that should be selected. 

The fanciful, or at least what appears to the moderns fanci- 
ful, arrangement of the cases amongst grammarians, may be 
dispensed with for the present. The idea, that the nomina- 
tive is a direct, upright case, and that the genitive declines 
with the smallest obliquity from it; the dative, accusative, and 
ablative, falling further and further from the perpendicularity 
of speech, is a species of metaphysics not very edifying to a 
child. Into what absurdity men of abilities may be led by the 
desire of explaining what they do not sufficiently understand, 
is fully exemplified in other sciences as well as grammar. 

The discoveries made by the author of Epea Pteroenta, 
show the difference between a vain attempt to substitute analo- 
gy and rhetoric in the place of demonstration and common 
sense. When a child has been patiently taught in conversa- 
tion to analyze what he says, he will take great pleasure in the 
exercise of his new talent; he will soon discover, that the cause 
of the action does not always come before the verb in a sen- 
tence, that sometimes it follows the verb. " John beats Thom- 
as," and " Thomas is beaten by John," he will perceive, mean 
the same thing; he may, with very little difficulty, be taught 
the difference between a verb active and a verb passive ; that 
one brings first before the mind the person or thing which 



GRAMMAR, &C. 255 

performs the action, and the other represents in the first place 
the person or thing upon whom the action is performed. A 
child of moderate capacity, after he has been familiarized to 
this general idea of a verb active and passive, and after he has 
been taught the names of the cases, will probably, without 
much difficulty, discover that the nominative case to a passive 
verb becomes the accusative case to a verb active. " School- 
masters are plagued by boys." A child sees plainly, that 
school-masters are the persons upon whom the action of plagu- 
ing is performed, and he will convert the sentence readily into 
" boys plague school-masters." 

We need not, however, be in any hurry to teach our pupil 
the names of the cases ; technical grammar may be easily 
learned, after a general idea of rational grammar has been 
obtained. For instance, the verb means only the word, or the 
principal word in a sentence ; a child can easily learn this 
after he has learnt what is meant by a sentence ; but it would 
be extremely difficult to make him comprehend it before he 
could distinguish a verb from a noun, and before he had any 
idea of the structure of a common sentence. From easy, we 
should proceed to more complicated, sentences. The gram- 
matical construction of the following lines, for example, may 
not be immediately apparent to a child : 

" What modes of sight between each vast extreme, 
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam; 
Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 
And hound sagacious on the tainted green." 

" Of Smell" A girl of ten years old (C ) was asked if 

she could tell what substantive the word " of n relates to; she 

readily answered "modes." C had learned a general 

idea of grammar in conversation, in the manner which we 
have described. It is asserted from experience, that this 
method of instructing children in grammar by conversation, 
is not only practicable, but perfectly easy, and that the minds 
of children are adapted to this species of knowledge. During 
life, we learn with eagerness whatever is congenial with our 
present pursuits, and the acquisition of language is one of the 
most earnest occupations of childhood. After distinct and. 
ready knowledge of the verb and nominative case has been 
acquired, the pupil should be taught to distinguish the object 
of an action, or, in other words, the objective or accusative 
case. He should be exercised in this, as in the former les- 
sons, repeatedly, until it becomes perfectly familiar; and he 
should be encouraged to converse about these lessons, and to 
make his own observations concerning grammar, without fear 
of the preceptor's peremptory frown, or positive reference to 
" his rules.'''' A child of five years old, was askecj what the 



256 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

word " Here .'" meant ? he answered, " It means to give a 
thing." 

" When I call a person, as, John ! John ! it seems to me," 

said a boy of nine years old (S ) " it seems to me, that 

the vocative case is both the verb and its accusative case." 
A boy who had ever been checked by his tutor for making 
his own observations upon the mysterious subject of gram- 
mar, would never have dared to have thought, or to have ut- 
tered a new thought, so freely. — Forcing children to learn 
any art or science by rote, without permitting the exercise of 
the understanding, must materially injure their powers both 
of reasoning and of invention. We acknowledge that Wilkins 
and Tooke have shown masters how to teach grammar a lit- 
tle better than it was formerly taught. Fortunately for the 
rising generation, all the words under the denomination of ad- 
verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, which were absolute 
nonsense to us, may be easily explained to them, and the 
commencement of instruction need no longer lay the founda- 
tion of implicit acquiescence in nonsense. We refer to Mr. 
Home Tooke's " Epea Pteroenta," forbearing to dilate upon 
the principles of his work, lest we should appear in the invid- 
ious light of authors who rob the works of others to adorn 
their own. We cannot help expressing a wish, that Mr. 
Home Tooke would have the philanthropic patience to write 
an elementary work in a simple style, unfolding his grammat- 
ical discoveries to the rising generation. 

When children have thus by gentle degrees, and by short 
and clear conversations, been initiated in general grammar, and 
familiarized to its technical terms, the first page of tremendous 
Lilly will lose much of its horror. It has been taken for 
granted, that at the age of which we have been speaking, a 
child can read English tolerably well, and that he has been 
used to employ a dictionary. He may now proceed to trans- 
late from some easy books a few short sentences : the first 
word will probably be an adverb or conjunction ; either of 
them may readily be found in the Latin dictionary, and the 
young scholar will exult in having translated one word of Lat- 
in ; but the next word, a substantive or verb, perhaps will 
elude his search. Now the grammar may be produced, and 
something of the various terminations of a noun may be explain- 
ed. If musam be searched for in the dictionary, it cannot be 
found, but musa catches the eye, and, with the assistance of the 
grammar, it may be shown, that the meaning of words may 
be discovered by. the united helps of the dictionary and 
grammar. After some days patient continuation of this exer- 
cise, the use of the grammar, and of its uncouth collection of 
words and syllables, will be apparent to the pupil: he will 
perceive that the grammar is a sort of appendix to the diction- 



GRAMMAR, &C. 267 

ary. The grammatical formulae may then, by gentle degrees, 
be committed to memory, and when once got by heart, should 
be assiduously preserved in the recollection. After the prepa- 
ration which we have recommended, the singular number of 
a declension will be learnt in a few minutes by a child of or- 
dinary capacity, and after two or three days repetition, the 
plural number may be added. The whole of the first declen- 
sion should be well fixed in the memory before a second is 
attempted. During this process, a few words at every lesson 
may be translated from Latin to English, and such nouns as 
are of the first declension, may be compared with ?nusa, and 
may be declined according to the same form. Tedious as 
this method may appear, it will in the end be found expedi- 
tious. Omitting some of the theoretic or didactic part of the 
grammar, which should only be read, and which may be ex- 
plained with care and patience, the whole of the declensions, 
pronouns, conjugations, the list of prepositions and conjunc- 
tions, interjections, some adverbs, the concords, and common 
rules of syntax, may be comprised with sufficient repetitions 
in about two or three hundred lessons of ten minutes each ; 
that is to say, ten minutes application of the scholar in the 
presence of the teacher. A young boy should never be set 
to learn a lesson by heart when alone. Forty hours ! Is this 
tedious ? If you are afraid of losing time, begin a few months 
earlier ; but begin when you will, forty hours is surely no 
great waste of time : the whole, or even half of this short time, is 
not spent in the labour of getting jargon by rote ; each day 
some slight advance is made in the knowledge of words, and 
in the knowledge of their combinations. What we insist upon 
is, that nothing should be done to disgust the pupil : steady per- 
severance with uniform gentleness, will induce habit, and noth- 
ing should ever interrupt the regular return of the daily les- 
son. If absence, business, illness, or any other cause, pre- 
vent the attendance of the teacher, a substitute must be ap- 
pointed ; the idea of relaxation on Sunday, or a holyday, 
should never be permitted. In most public seminaries above 
one third, in some nearly one half, of the year is permitted to 
idleness : it is the comparison between severe labour and dissi- 
pation, that renders learning hateful. 

Johnson is made to say by one of his female biographers,* 
that no child loves the person who teaches him Latin ; yet 
the author of this chapter would not take all the doctor's fame, 
and all the lady's wit and riches, in exchange for the hourly, 
unfeigned, unremitting friendship, which he enjoys with a son 
who had no other master than his father. So far from being 
laborious or troublesome, he has found it an agreeable em- 

* Mrs. Piozzi. 
33 



258 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ployment to instruct his children in grammar and the learned 
languages. In the midst of a variety of other occupations, half 
an hour every morning for many years, during the time of dres- 
sing, has been allotted to the instruction of boys of different 
ages in languages, and no other time has been spent in this 
employment. Were it asserted that these boys made a rea- 
sonable progress, the expression would convey no distinct 
meaning to the reader ; we shall therefore, mention an experi- 
ment tried this morning, November 8th, 1796, to ascertain the 
progress of one of these pupils. Without previous study, he 
translated twenty lines of the story of Ceyx and Alcyone, 
from Ovid, consulting the dictionary only twice : he was then 
desired to translate the passage which he had read into Eng- 
lish verse ; and in two or three hours he produced the follow- 
ing version. Much of the time was spent in copying the 
lines fairly, as this opportunity was taken of exciting his at- 
tention to writing and spelling, to associate the habit of ap- 
plication with the pleasure of voluntary exertion. The curi- 
ous may, if they think it worth their while, see the various 
readings and corrections of the translation (V. Chapter on 
Conversation, and Anecdotes of Children) which were care- 
fully preserved, not as " Curiosities of Literature ," but for the 
sake of truth, and with a desire to show, that the pupil had 
the patience to correct. A genius may hit off a few tolerable 
lines; but if a child is willing and able to criticise and cor- 
rect what he writes, he shows that he selects his expressions 
from choice, and not from chance or imitation ; and he gives 
to a judicious tutor the certain promise of future improvement. 

" Far in a vale there lies a cave forlorn, 
Which Phoebus never enters eve or morn, 
The misty clouds inhale the pitchy ground, 
And twilight lingers all the vale around. 
No watchful cocks Aurora's beams invite ; 
No dogs nor geese, the guardians of the night : 
No flocks nor herds disturb the silent plains ; 
Within the sacred walls mute quiet reigns, 
And murmuring Lethe soothing sleep invites ; 
In dreams again the flying past delights : 
From milky flowers that near the cavern grow, 
Night scatters the collected sleep below." 

S , the boy whp made this translation, was just ten 

years old ; he had made but three previous attempts in versi- 
fication ; his reading in poetry had been some of Gay's fa- 
bles, parts of the Minstrel, three odes of Gray, the Elegy in a 
Country Church-yard, the Tears of Old May-day, and parts 
of the second volume of Dr. Darwin's Botanic Garden ; Dry- 
den's translations of the fable of Ceyx and Alcyone he had 
never seen ; the book had always been locked up. Phaedrus 
and Ovid's Metamorphoses were the whole of his Latin erudi- 



GRAMMAR, &C. 25 & 

tion. These circumstances are mentioned thus minutely, to 
afford the inquisitive teacher materials for an accurate esti- 
mate of the progress made by our method of instruction. 
Perhaps most boys of S 's age, in our great public semi- 
naries, would, upon a similar trial, be found superior. Com- 
petition in the art of translation is not our object; our object 
is to show, that half an hour a day, steadily appropriated to 
grammar and Latin, would be sufficient to secure a boy of 
this age, from any danger of ignorance in classical learning ; 
and that the ease and shortness of his labour will prevent that 
disgust, which is too often induced by forced and incessant 
application. We may add, that some attention to the manner 
in which the pupils repeat their Latin lessons, has been found 
advantageous : as they were never put in bodily fear, by the 
impatience of a pedagogue, they had leisure and inclination 
to read and recite, without awkward gestures and discordant 
tones. The whining tones and convulsive gestures often con- 
tracted by boys during the agony of repeating their long les- 
sons, are not likely to be advantageous, to the rising genera- 
tion of orators. Practice, and the strong motive of emulation, 
may, in a public seminary, conquer these bad habits. After 
the pupil has learned to speak ill, he may be taught to speak 
well ; but the chances are against him : and why should we 
have the trouble of breaking bad habits ? It is much easier 
to prevent them. In private education, as the preceptor has 
less chance of curing his pupil of the habit of speaking ill, he 
should be peculiarly attentive to give the child constant hab- 
its of speaking and reading well. It is astonishing, that pa- 
rents, who are extremely intent upon the education, of their 
children, should overlook some of the essential means of suc- 
cess. A young man with his head full of Latin and law, will 
make but a poor figure at the bar, or in parliament, if he can- 
not enunciate distinctly, and if he cannot speak good English 
extempore, or produce his learning and arguments with grace 
and propriety. It is in vain to expect that a boy should 
speak well in public, who cannot, in common conversation, 
utter three connected sentences without a false concord or a 
provincial idiom ; he may be taught with much care and cost 
to speak tripod sentences ;* but bring the young orator to the 
test, bring him to actual business, rouse any of his passions, 
throw him off his guard, and then listen to his language ; he 
will forget instantly his reading master, and all his rules of 
pronunciation and rhetoric, and he will speak the language to 
which he has been most accustomed. No master will. then be 
near him to regulate the pitch and tones of his voice. We 
cannot believe that even Caius Gracchus could, when he was 
warmed with passion, have listened to Licinius's pitch-pipe.f 

* V. Blair, t V. Plutarch. 



260 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Example, and constant attention to their manner of speaking 
in common conversation, we apprehend to be the most certain 
methods of preparing young men for public speakers. Much 
of the time that is spent in teaching boys to walk upon stilts, 
might be more advantageously employed in teaching them to 
walk well without them. It is all very well whilst the pupil 
is under the protection of his preceptor. The actor on the 
stage is admired whilst he is elevated by the cothurnus ; but 
3 r oung men are not to exhibit their oratorical talents always 
with the advantages of stage effect and decorations. We 
should imagine, that much of the diffidence felt by young 
men of abilities, when they first rise to speak in public, may 
be attributed to their immediate perception of the difference 
between scholastic exhibitions and the real business of life ; 
they feel that they have learned to speak two languages, 
which must not, on any account, be mixed together ; the one, 
the vulgar language of common conversation ; the other, the 
refined language of oratorical composition : the first they are 
most inclined to use when they are agitated ; and they are 
agitated when they rise to speak before numbers : conse- 
quently there is an immediate struggle between custom and 
institution. Now, a young man, who in common conversation 
in his own family has never been accustomed to hear or to 
speak vulgar or ungrammatical language, cannot possibly ap- 
prehend that he shall suddenly utter ridiculous expressions ; 
he knows, that, if he speaks at all, he shall at least speak 
good English ; and he is not afraid, that, if he is pursued, he 
shall be obliged to throw away his cumbrous stilts. The 
practice of speaking in public, we are sensible, is a great ad- 
vantage ; but the habit of speaking accurately in private, is 
of still greater consequence : this habit depends upon the ear- 
ly and persevering care of the parent and the preceptor. 
There is no reason why children should not be made at the 
same time good scholars and good speakers ; nor is there any 
reason why boys, whilst they learn to write Latin, should be 
suffered to forget how to write English. 

It would be a great advantage to the young classical schol- 
ar, if his Latin and English literature were mixed; the taste 
for ancient authors and for modern literature, ought to be 
cultivated at the same time ; and the beauties of composition, 
characteristic of different languages, should be familiarized 
to the student. Classical knowledge and taste afford such 
continual and innocent sources of amusement, that we should 
be extremely sorry that any of our pupils should not enjoy 
them in their fullest extent; but we do not include a talent for 
Latin composition amongst the necessary accomplishments of a 
gentleman. There are situations in life, were facility and 



GRAMMAR, &C. 261 

elegance in writing Latin may be useful, but such situations 
are not common ; when a young man is intended for them, he 
may be trained with more particular assiduity to this art ; 
perhaps for this purpose the true Busbyean method is the 
best. The great Latin and Greek scholars of the age, have 
no reason to be displeased by the assertion, that classical pro- 
ficiency equal to their own, is not a necessary accomplishment 
in a gentleman ; if their learning become more rare, it may 
thence become more valuable. We see no reason why there 
should not be Latinists as well as special pleaders. 

We have not laid down any course of classical study : 
those who consider the order in which certain authors are 
read, as of material consequence in the education of scholars, 
may consult Milton, Mrs. Macaulay, " Milne's Well-bred 
Scholar," &c. where they will find precise directions. 

We have lately seen a collection of exercises for boys,* 
which in some measure supplies the defect of Mr. Garretson's 
curious performance. We wish most earnestly that dictiona- 
ries were improved. The author of " Stemmata Latinitatis," 
has conferred an essential service on the public ; but still 
there is wanting a dictionary for schools, in which elegant 
and proper English might be substituted for the barbarous 
translations now in use. Such a dictionary could not be com- 
piled, we should think, without an attention to the course of 
books that are most commonly used in schools. The first 
meanings given in the dictionary, should suit the first authors 
that a boy reads ; this may probably be a remote or meta- 
phoric meaning : then the radical word should be mentioned, 
and it would not cost a master any great trouble to trace the 
genealogy of words to the parent stock. 

Corderi is a collection of such mean sentences, and unin- 
structive dialogue, as to be totally unfit for boys. Come- 
nius's " Visible World displayed," is far superior, and might, 
with proper alterations and better prints, become a valuable 
English school-book. Both these books w r ere intended for 
countries where the Latin language was commonly spoken, 
and consequently they are filled with the terms necessary for 
domestic life and conversation ; for this very reason they are 
not good introductions to the classics. Selections from Bai- 
ley's Phaedrus, will be proper for young beginners, upon ac- 
count of the glossary. We prefer this mode of assisting 
them with glossaries to the use of translations, because they 
do not induce indolent habits, and yet they prevent the pupil 
from having unnecessary labour. Translations always give 
the pupil more trouble in the end, than they save in the be- 

* Valpy's Exercises. 



262 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ginning. The glossary to Bailey's Phaedrus, which we have 
just mentioned, wants much to be modernized, and the lan- 
guage requires to be improved. Mr. Valpy's " Select Sen- 
tences," would be much more useful if they had a glossary 
annexed. As they are, they will, however, be useful after 
Phasdrus. Ovid's Metamorphoses, with all its monstrous 
faults, appears to be the best introduction to the Latin clas- 
sics, and to heathen mythology. Norris's Ovid may be safe- 
ly put into the hands of children, as it is a selection of the 
least exceptionable fables. To accustom boys to read poe- 
try and prose nearly at the same period, is advantageous. 
Cornelius Nepos, a crabbed book, but useful from its brevity, 
and from its being a proper introduction to Grecian and Ro- 
man history, may be read nearly at the same time with Ovid's 
Metamorphoses. After Ovid, the pupil may begin Virgil, 
postponing some of the Eclogues, and all the Georgics. 

We recommend that some English books should be put into 
the hands of boys whilst they are going through Phaedrus, 
Ovid, and Cornelius Nepos, which may suit with the ideas 
they acquire from these Latin authors. Plutarch's Lives, for 
instance, will be useful and interesting. When we mention 
Plutarch's Lives, we cannot help recollecting how many great 
people have acknowledged the effect of this book in their 
early education. Charles the Twelfth, Rousseau, Madame 
Roland, Gibbon, we immediately remember, and we are sure 
we have noticed many others. An abridgment of Plutarch, 
by Mrs. Helme, which we have looked into, appears (the pre- 
face excepted) to be well written ; and we see another abridg- 
ment of Plutarch advertised, which we hope may prove ser- 
viceable : good prints to a Plutarch for children, would be 
very desirable. 

As an English introduction to mythology, we recommend 
the first volume of Lord Chesterfield's Letters, as a most ele- 
gant view of heathen mythology. But if there be any danger 
that the first volume should introduce the remainder of Lord 
Chesterfield's work to the inexperienced reader, w T e should 
certainly forbear the experiment : it would be far better for a 
young man never to be acquainted with a single heathen dei- 
ty, than to purchase Lord Chesterfield's classical knowledge 
at the hazard of contamination from his detestable system of 
morals. Without his Lordship's assistance, Mrs. Monsigny's 
Mythology can properly initiate the young pupil of either sex 
into the mysteries of ancient fables. The notes to Potter's 
iEschylus, are also well suited to our purpose. In Dr. Dar- 
win's " Botanic Garden," there are some beautiful poetic al- 
lusions to ancient gems and ancient fables, which must fix 
themselves in the memory or in the imagination of the pupil. 
The sooner they are read, the better; we have felt the ad- 



GRAMMAR, &C. 263 

vantage of putting them into the hands of a boy of nine or ten 
years old. The ear should be formed to English as well as to 
Latin poetry. 

Classical poetry, without the knowledge of mythology, is 
unintelligible : if children study the one, they must learn the 
other. Divested of the charms of poetry, and considered 
without classical prepossession, mythology presents a system 
of crimes and absurdities, which no allegorical, metaphysical, 
or literal interpreters of modern times, can perfectly reconcile 
to common sense, or common morality ; but our poets have 
naturalized ancient fables, so that mythology is become essen- 
tial even to modern literature. The associations of taste, 
though arbitrary, are not easily changed in a nation whose 
literature has attained to a certain pitch of refinement, and 
whose critical judgments must consequently have been for 
some generations traditional. There are subjects of popular 
allusion, which poets and orators regard as common property j 
to dispossess them of these, seems impracticable, after time 
has sanctioned the prescriptive right. But new knowledge, 
and the cultivation of new sciences, present objects of poetic 
allusion which, skilfully managed by men of inventive genius, 
will oppose to the habitual reverence for antiquity, the 
charms of novelty united to the voice of philosophy.* 

In education we must, however, consider the actual state of 
manners in that world in which our pupils are to live, as well 
as our wishes or our hopes of its gradual improvement.! 
With a little care, preceptors may manage so as to teach my- 
thology without in the least injuring their pupils. Children 
may be familiarized to the strange manners and strange per- 
sonages of ancient fable, and may consider them as a set of 
beings who are not to be judged by any rules of morality, 
and who have nothing in common with ourselves. The ca- 
ricatura of some of the passions, perhaps r will not shock chil- 
dren who are not used to their natural appearance ; they wili" 
pass over the stories of love and jealousy, merely because 
they do not understand them. We should rather leave them 
completely unintelligible, than attempt, like Mr. Riley, in his 
mythological pocket dictionary for youth, to elucidate the 
whole at once, by assuring children that Saturn was Adam, 
that Atlas is Moses, and his brother Hesperus, Aaron ; that 
Vertumnus and Pomona were Boaz and Ruth ; that Mars 
corresponds with Joshua 5 that Apollo accords with David, 
since they both played upon the harp ; that Mercury can be 

* V. Darwin's Poetry. 

t Since the above was written, we have seen a letter from Dr. Aikin to his 
son on the morality and poetic merit of the fable of Circe, which convinces us 
that the observations that we have hazarded are not premature. 






264 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

no other than our Archangel Michael, since they both have 
wings on their arms and feet ; that, in short, to complete the 
concordance, Momus is a striking likeness of Satan. The an- 
cients, Mr. Riley allows, have so much disfigured these per- 
sonages, that it is hard to know many of the portraits again at 
first sight ; however, he is persuaded that " the young student 
will find a peculiar gratification in tracing the likeness," and 
he has kindly furnished us with a catalogue to explain the ex- 
hibition, and to guide us through his new pantheon. 

As books of reference, the convenient size, and compressed 
information, of pocket mythological dictionaries, will recom- 
mend them to general use ; but we object to the miserable 
prints with which they are sometimes disgraced. The first 
impression made upon the imagination* of children, is of the 
utmost consequence to their future taste. The beautiful en- 
gravings! in Spence's Polymetis, will introduce the heathen 
deities in their most graceful and picturesque forms to the 
fancy. The language of Spence, though classical, is not en- 
tirely free from pedantic affectation, and his dialogues are, 
perhaps, too stiff and long winded for our young pupils. But 
a parent or preceptor can easily select the useful explana- 
tions ; and in turning over the prints, they can easily associate 
some general notion of the history and attributes of the gods 
and goddesses with their forms : the little eager spectators 
will, as they crowd round the book, acquire imperceptibly all 
the necessary knowledge of mythology, imbibe the first pleas- 
ing ideas of taste, and store their imagination with classic im- 
agery. The same precautions that are necessary to educate 
the eye, are also necessary to form the ear and understand- 
ing of taste. The first mythological descriptions which our 
pupils read, should be the best in their kind. Compare the 
following account of Europa in a pocket dictionary, with her 
figure in a poetical gem — " Europa, the daughter of Agenor, 
king of the Phoenicians, and sister of Cadmus. This princess 
was so beautiful, that, they say, one of the companions of 
Juno had robbed her of a pot of paint to bestow on this lady, 
which rendered her so handsome. She was beloved of Jupi- 
ter, who assumed the shape of a bull to run away with her, 
swam over the sea with her on his back, and carried her into 
that part of the world now called Europe, from her name." 
So far the dictionary ; now for the poet. 

" Now lows a milk-white bull on Afric's strand, 
And crops with dancing head the daisy'd land ; 
With rosy wreathes Euvopa's hand adorns 
His fringed forehead and his pearly horns ; 

* Chapter on Imagination. 

t We speak of these engravings as beautiful, for the times in which they 
were done ; modern artists have arrived at higher perfection. 



GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY. 265 

Light on his back the sportive damsel bounds, 

And, pleas d, he moves along the flowery grounds; 

Bears with slow step his beauteous prize aloof, 

Dips in the lucid flood his ivory hoof; 

Then wets his velvet knees, and wading, laves 

His silky sides, amid the dimpling waves. 

While her fond train with beckoning hands deplore, 

Strain their blue eyes, and shriek aloDg the shore : 

Beneath her robe she draws her snowy feet, 

And, half reclining on her ermine seat, 

Round his rais'd neck her radiant arms she throws, 

And rests her fair cheek on his curled brows ; 

Her yellow tresses wave on wanton gales, 

And high in air, her azure mantle sails."* 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ON GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY. 

The usual manner of teaching Geography and Chronology, 
may, perhaps, be necessary in public seminaries, where a 
number of boys are to learn the same thing at the same time ; 
but what is learned in this manner, is not permanent; some- 
thing besides merely committing names and dates to the 
memory, is requisite to make a useful impression upon tbe 
memory. For the truth of this observation, an appeal is 
made to the reader. Let him recollect, whether the Geogra- 
phy and Chronology which he learned whilst a boy, are 
what he now remembers — Whether he has not obtained his 
present knowledge from other sources than the tasks of early 
years. When business, or conversation, calls upon us to fur- 
nish facts accurate as to place and time, we retrace our former 
heterogeneous acquirements, and select those circumstances 
which are connected with our present pursuit, and thus we 
form, as it were, a nucleus round which other facts insensibly 
arrange themselves. Perhaps no two men in the world, who 
are well versed in these studies, connect their knowledge in 
the same manner. Relation to some particular country, some 
favourite history, some distinguished person, forms the con- 
nexion which guides our recollection, and which arranges our 
increasing nomenclature. By attending to what passes in our 
own minds, we may learn an effectual method of teaching 
without pain, and without any extraordinary burden to the 
memorjr, all that is useful of these sciences. The details of 

a Darwin. V. Botanic Garden 



2GG practical education. 

history should be marked by a few chronological aeras, and 
by a few general ideas of geography. When these have been 
once completely associated in the mind, there is little danger 
of their being ever disunited : the sight of any country will 
recall its history, and even from representations in a map, or 
on the globe, when the mind is wakened by any recent event, 
a long train of concomitant ideas will recur. 

The use of technical helps to the memory, has been con- 
demned by many, and certainly, when they are employed as 
artifices to supply the place of real knowledge, they are con- 
temptible ; but when they are used as indexes to facts that 
have been really collected in the mind ; when they serve to 
arrange the materials of knowledge in appropriate classes, 
and to give a sure and rapid clue to recollection, they are of 
real advantage to the understanding. Indeed, they are now 
so common, that pretenders cannot build the slightest reputa- 
tion upon their foundation. Were an orator to attempt a dis- 
play of long chronological accuracy, he might be wofully 
confounded by his opponent's applying at the first pause, 

* FAsluk he would have said ! 

Ample materials are furnished in Gray's Memoria Technica, 
from which a short and useful selection may be made, accord- 
ing to the purposes which are in view. For children, the lit- 
tle ballad of the Chapter of Kings, will not be found beneath 
the notice of mothers who attend to education. If the techni- 
cal terminations of Gray are inserted, they will never be for- 
gotten, or may be easily recalled.! We scarcely ever forget 
a ballad if the tune is popular. 

For pupils at a more advanced age, it will be found advan- 
tageous to employ technical helps of a more scientific con- 
struction. Priestley's Chart of Biography may, from time to 
time, be hung in their view. Smaller charts, upon the same 
plan, might be provided with a few names as land-marks ; 
these may be filled up by the pupil with such names as he 
selects from history ; they may be bound in octavo, like 
maps, by the middle, so as to unfold both ways — Thirty-nine 
inches by nine will be a convenient size. Prints, maps, and 
medals, which are part of the constant furniture of a room, 
are seldom attended to by young people ; but when circum- 

* V. Gray's Memoria Technica, and the Critic. 

t Instead of 

William the conqueror long- did reign, 
And William his son by an arrow was slain. 



Read, 

And so on from Gray's Memoria Technica to the end of the chapter. 



William the Consau long did reign, 

And Rufkoi his sou by an arrow was slain. 



GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY. 267 

stances excite an interest upon any particular subject, then is 
the moment to produce the symbols which record and com- 
municate knowledge. 

Mrs. Radcliffe, in her judicious and picturesque tour 
through Germany, tells us, that in passing through the apart- 
ments of a palace which the archduchess Maria Christiana, 
the sister of the late unfortunate queen of France, had left a 
few hours before, she saw spread upon a table a map of all 
the countries then included in the seat of the war. The po- 
sitions of the several corps of the allied armies were marked 
upon this chart with small pieces of various coloured wax. 
Can it be doubted, that the strong interest which this princess 
must have taken in the subject, would for ever impress upon 
her memory the geography of this part of the world ? 

How many people are there who have become geographers 
since the beginning of the present war. Even the common 
newspapers disseminate this species of knowledge, and those 
who scarcely knew the situation of Brest harbour a few 
years ago, have consulted the map with that eagerness which 
approaching danger excites ; they consequently will tena- 
ciously remember all the geographical knowledge they have 
thus acquired. The art of creating an interest in the study 
of geography, depends upon the dexterity with which passing 
circumstances are seized by a preceptor in conversation. 
What are maps or medals, statues or pictures, but technical 
kelps to memory? If a mother possess good prints, or casts 
of ancient gems, let them be shown to any persons of taste 
and knowledge who visit her ; their attention leads that ofi 
our pupils ; imitation and sympathy are the parents of taste, 
and taste reads in the monuments of art whatever history has 
recorded. 

In the Adele and Theodore of Madame de Silleri, a num- 
ber of adventitious helps are described for teaching history 
and chronology. There can be no doubt that these are use- 
ful ; and although such an apparatus cannot be procured by 
private families, fortunately the print-shops of every provin- 
cial town, and of the capital in particular, furnish even to the 
passenger a continual succession of instruction. Might not 
prints, assorted for the purposes which we have mentioned^ 
be lent at circulating libraries ? 

To assist our pupils in geography, we prefer a globe to- 
common maps. Might not a cheap, portable, and convenient 
globe, be made of oiled silk, to be inflated by a common pair 
of bellows ? Mathematical exactness is not requisite for our 
purpose, and though we could not pretend to the precision of 
our best globes, yet a balloon of this sort would compensate' 
by its size and convenience for its inaccuracy. It might be 
hung by a line from its north pole, to a hook screwed into. 



268 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

the horizontal architrave of a door or window ; and another 
string from its south pole might be fastened at a proper angle 
to the floor, to give the requisite elevation to the axis of the 
globe. An idea of the different projections of the sphere, 
may be easily acquired from this globe in its flaccid state, 
and any part of it might be consulted as a map, if it were laid 
upon a convex board of a convenient size. Impressions from 
the plates which are used for common globes, might be taken 
to try this idea without any great trouble or expense ; but we 
wish to employ a much larger scale, and to have them five or 
six feet diameter. The inside of a globe of this sort might be 
easily illuminated, and this would add much to the novelty 
and beauty of its appearance. 

In the country, with the assistance of a common carpenter 
and plasterer, a large globe of lath and plaster may be made 
for the instruction and entertainment of a numerous family of 
children. Upon this they should leisurely delineate from 
time to time, by their given latitudes and longitudes, such 
places as they become acquainted with in reading or conver- 
sation. The capital city, for instance, of the different coun- 
tries of Europe, the rivers and the neighbouring towns, until 
at last the outline might be added : for the sake of conve- 
nience, the lines, &c. may be first delineated upon a piece of 
paper, from which they may be accurately transferred to 
their proper places on the globe, by the intervention of black- 
leaded paper, or by pricking the lines through the paper, and 
pouncing powdered blue through the holes upon the surface 
of the globe. 

We enter into this detail because we are convinced, that 
every addition to the active manual employment of children, 
is of consequence, not only to their improvement, but to their 
happiness. 

Another invention has occurred to us for teaching geogra- 
phy and history together. Priestley's Chart of History, 
though constructed with great ingenuity, does not invite the 
attention of young people : there is an intricacy in the detail 
which is not obvious at first. To remedy what appears to us 
a difficulty, we propose that eight and twenty, or perhaps 
thirty, octavo maps of the globe should be engraved ; upon 
these should be traced, in succession, the different situations 
of the different countries of the world, as to power and extent, 
during each respective century : different colours might de- 
note the principal divisions of the world in each of these 
maps ; the same colour always denoting the same country, 
with the addition of one strong colour ; red, for instance, to 
distinguishing that country which had at each period the 
principal dominion. On the upper and lower margin in these 
maps, the names of illustrious persons might be engraven in 



ARITHMETIC. 269 

the manner of the biographical chart ; and the reigning 
opinions of each century should also be inserted. Thus his- 
tory, chronology, and geography, would appear at once to 
the eye in their proper order, and regular succession, divided 
into centuries and periods, which easily occur to recollection. 

We forbear to expatiate upon this subject, as it has not 
been actually submitted to experiment ; carefully avoiding in 
the whole of this work to recommend any mode of instruction 
which we have not actually put in practice. For this reason, 
we have not spoken of the abbe Gaultier's method of teaching 
geography, as we have only been able to obtain accounts of 
it from the public papers, and from reviews ; we are, how- 
ever, disposed to think favourably beforehand, of any mode 
which unites amusement with instruction. We cannot forbear 
recommending, in the strongest manner, a few pages of Rollin 
in his ' ; Thoughts upon Education,"* which we think contain 
an excellent specimen of the manner in which a well informed 
preceptor might lead his pupils a geographical, historical, bo- 
tanical, and physiological tour upon the artificial globe. 

We conclude this chapter of hints, by repeating what we 
have before asserted, that though technical assistance may be 
of ready use to those who are really acquainted with that 
knowledge to which it refers, it never can supply the place of 
accurate information. 

The causes of the rise and fall of empires, the progress of 
human knowledge, and the great discoveries of superior 
minds, are the real links which connect the chain of political 
knowledge. 



CHAPTER XV. 



ON ARITHMETIC. 



The man who is ignorant that two and two make four, is 
stigmatized with the character of hopeless stupidity ; except, 
as Swift has remarked, in the arithmetic of the customs, 
where two and two do not always make the same sum. 

We must not judge of the understanding of a child by this 
test, for many children of quick abilities do not immediately 
assent to this proposition when it is first laid before them. 
" Two and two make four," says the tutor. " Well, child, why 
do you stare so ?" 

* Page 24, 



270 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

The child stares because the word make is in this sentence 
used in a sense which is quite new to him ; he knows what it 
is to make a bow, and to make a noise, but how this active 
verb is applicable in the present case, where there is no agent 
to perform the action, he cannot clearly comprehend. " Two 
and two are four," is more intelligible ; but even this asser- 
tion, the child, for want of a distinct notion of the sense in 
which the word are is used, does not understand. 

" Two and two are called four," is, perhaps, the most accu- 
rate phrase a tutor can use ; but even these words will con- 
vey no meaning until they have been associated with the 
pupil's perceptions. When he has once perceived the com- 
bination of the numbers with real objects, it will then be easy 
to teach him that the words are called, are, and make, in the 
foregoing proposition, are synonymous terms. We have cho- 
sen the first simple instance we could recollect, to show how 
difficult the words we generally use en teaching arithmetic, 
must be to our young pupils. It would be an unprofitable 
task to enumerate all the puzzling technical terms which, in 
their earliest lessons, children are obliged to hear, without 
being able to understand. 

It is not from want of capacity that so many children are 
deficient in arithmetical skill ; and it is absurd to say, a such a 
child has no genius for arithmetic. Such a child cannot be 
made to comprehend any thing about numbers." These as- 
sertions prove nothing, but that the persons who make them, 
are ignorant of the art of teaching. A child's seeming stu- 
pidity in learning arithmetic, may, perhaps, be a proof of in- 
telligence and good sense. It is easy to make a boy, who 
does not reason, repeat by rote any technical rules which a 
common writing-master, with magisterial solemnity, may lay 
down for him : but a child who reasons, will not be thus 
easily managed : he stops, frowns, hesitates, questions his 
master, is wretched and refractory, until he can discover why 
he is to proceed in such and such a manner; he is not content 
with seeing his preceptor make figures and lines upon a slate, 
and perform wondrous operations with the self-complacent 
dexterity of a conjurer. A sensible boy is not satisfied with 
merely seeing the total of a given sum, or the answer to a 
given question, come out right ; he insists upon knowing why 
it is right. He is not content to be led to the treasures of 
science blindfold ; he would tear the bandage from his eyes, 
that he might know the way to them again. 

That many children, who have been thought to be slow in 
learning arithmetic, have, after their escape from the hands of 
pedagogues, become remarkable for their quickness, is a fact 
sufficiently proved by experience. We shall only mention 
one instance, which we happened to meet with whilst we were 



ARITHMETIC. 271 

writing this chapter. John Ludwig, a Saxon peasant, was dis- 
missed from school when he was a child, after four years in- 
effectual struggle to learn the common rules of arithmetic. 
He had been, during this time, beaten and scolded in vain* 
He spent several subsequent years in common country la- 
bour, but at length some accidental circumstances excited his 
ambition, and he became expert in all the common rules, 
and mastered the rule of three and fractions, by the help of 
an old school book, in the course of one year. He after- 
wards taught himself geometry, and raised himself, by the 
force of his abilities and perseverance, from obscurity to 
fame. 

We should like to see the book which helped Mr. Ludwig 
to conquer his difficulties. Introductions to Arithmetic are, 
often, calculated rather for adepts in science, than for the igno- 
rant. We do not pretend to have discovered any shorter 
method than what is common, of teaching these sciences ; 
but, in conformity with the principles which are laid down in 
the former part of this work, we have endeavoured to teach 
their rudiments without disgusting our pupils, and without ha- 
bituating them to be contented with merely technical opera- 
tions. 

In arithmetic, as in every other branch of education, the 
principal object should be, to preserve the understanding 
from implicit belief; to invigorate its powers ; to associate 
pleasure with literature, and to induce the laudable ambition 
of progressive improvement. 

As soon as a child can read, he should be accustomed to 
count, and to have the names of numbers early connected in 
his mind with the combinations which they represent. For 
this purpose, he should be taught to add first by things, and 
afterwards by signs or figures. He should be taught to form 
combinations of things by adding them together one after 
another. At the same time that he acquires the names that 
have been given to these combinations, he should be taught 
the figures or symbols that represent them. For example, 
when it is familiar to the child, that one almond, and one al- 
mond, are called two almonds ; that one almond, and two al- 
monds, are called three almonds, and so on, he should be 
taught to distinguish the figures that represent these assem- 
blages ; that 3 means one and two, &c. Each operation of 
arithmetic should proceed in this manner, from individuals to 
the abstract notation of signs. 

One of the earliest operations of the reasoning faculty, is 
abstraction ; that is to say, the power of classing a number of 
individuals under one name. Young children call strangers 



272 PliACTICAI, EDUCATION. 

either men or women ; even the most ignorant savages* have 
a propensity to generalize. 

We may err either by accustoming our pupils too much to 
the consideration of tangible substances when we teach them 
arithmetic, or by turning their attention too much to signs. 
The art of forming a sound and active understanding, consists 
in the due mixture of facts and reflection. Dr. Reid has, in 
his " Essay on the Intellectual Powers of Man," page 297, 
pointed out, with great ingenuity, the admirable economy of 
nature in limiting the powers of reasoning during the first 
years of infancy. This is the season for cultivating the sens- 
es, and whoever, at this early age, endeavours to force the 
tender shoots of reason, will repent his rashness. 

In the chapter " on Toys," we have recommended the use 
of plain, regular solids, cubes, globes, &c. made of wood, as 
playthings, for children, instead of uncouth figures of men, 
women, and animals. For teaching arithmetic, half inch 
cubes, which can be easily grasped by infant fingers, may be 
employed with great advantage ; they can be easily arranged 
in various combinations ; the eye can easily take in a suffi- 
cient number of them at once, and the mind is insensibly led 
to consider the assemblages in which they may be grouped, 
not only as they relate to number, but as they relate to quan- 
tity or shape ; besides, the terms which are borrowed from 
some of these shapes, as squares, cubes, &c. will become fa- 
miliar. As these children advance in arithmetic to square or 
cube, a number will be more intelligible to them than to a 
person who has been taught these words merely as the formu- 
la of certain rules. In arithmetic, the first lessons should be 
short and simple ; two cubes placed above each other, will 
soon be called two ; if placed in any other situations near 
each other, they will still be called two ; but it is advanta- 
geous to accustom our little pupils to place the cubes with 
which they are taught in succession, either by placing them 
upon one another, or laying in columns upon a table, begin- 
ning to count from the cube next to them, as we cast up in 
addition. For this purpose, a board about six inches long, 
and five broad, divided into columns perpendicularly by slips 
of wood three eighths of an inch wide, and one eighth of an 
inch thick, will be found useful ; and if a few cubes of colours 
different from those already mentioned, with numbers on their 
six sides, are procured, they may be of great service. Our 
cubes should be placed, from time to time, in a different or- 
der, or promiscuously ; but when any arithmetical operations 
are to be performed with them, it is best to preserve the es- 
tablished arrangement. 

- V. A strange instance quoted by Mr. Stewart, " On the Human Mind," 
page 152. 



ARITHMETIC. 273 

One cube and one other, are called two. 

Two what? 

Two cubes. 

One glass, and one glass, are called two glasses. One 
raisin, and one raisin, are called two raisins, &c. One cube, 
and one glass, are called what ? Two things or two. 

By a process of this sort, the meaning of the abstract term 
two may be taught. A child will perceive the word two, 
means the same as the words one and one ; and when we say 
one and one are called two, unless he is prejudiced by some- 
thing else that is said to him, he will understand nothing more 
than that there are two names for the same thing. 

" One, and one, and one, are called three," is the same as 
saying " that three is the name for one, and one, and one." 
" Two and one are three," is also the same as saying " that 
three is the name of two and one" Three is also the name of 
one and two ; the word three has, therefore three meanings ; 
it means one, and one, and one ; also, two and one ; also, one 
and two. He will see that any two of the cubes may be put 
together, as it were, in one parcel, and that this parcel may 
be called two ; and he will also see that this parcel, when 
joined to another single cube, will make three, and that the 
sum will be the same, whether the single cube, or the two 
cubes, be named first. 

In a similar manner, the combinations which form four, 
may be considered. One, and one, and one. and one, are 4« 

One and three are four. 

Two and two are four. 

Three and one are four. 

All these assertions mean the same thing, and the term four 
is equally applicable to each of them : when, therefore, we 
say that two and two are four, the child may be easily led to 
perceive, and indeed to see, that it means the same thing as 
saying one two, and one two, which is the same thing as say- 
ing two two's, or saying the word two two times. Our pupil 
should be suffered to rest here, and we should not, at present, 
attempt to lead him further towards that compendious meth- 
od of addition which we call multiplication ; but the founda- 
tion is laid by giving him this view of the relation between 
two and two in forming four. 

There is an enumeration in the note* of the different com- 

NOTE. 

l i 

*Two is 1 11 

the — 12 

name for 2 — — 

?5E 3 3 



274 



PKACTICAL EDUCATION. 



binations which compose the rest of Arabic notation, which 
consists only of nine characters. 

Before we proceed to the number ten, or to the new se- 
ries of enumeration which succeeds to it, we should make our 
pupils perfectly masters of the combinations which we have 
mentioned, both in the direct order in which they are arran- 
ged, and in various modes of succession ; by these means, 
not only the addition, but the subtraction, of numbers as far 
as nine, will be perfectly familiar to them. 



1 

1 1 

1112 

12 3 2 

4 4 4 4 



NOTE. 



1 




























1 


1 


























1 


1 


1 




1 




















1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


3 


















1 


2 


3 


4 


2 


2 


















5 


5 


5 


5 


5 


5 




















1 
1 


1 






1 




















1 


1 


1 




1 


2 


1 




1 












1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


3 


4 


2 


3 










2 


3 


4 


5 


2 


2 


2 


2 


3 


3 








6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 


6 








SB 




1 
1 


1 






1 

1 


1 


1 
















1 


1 


1 




1 


2 


1 


1 




2 


1 








1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


3 


4 


5 


2 


3 


4 




2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 


7 































ARITHMETIC. 



275 



It has been observed before, that counting by realities, and 
by signs, should be taught at the same time, so that the ear, 
the eye, and the mind, should keep pace with one another ; 
and that technical habits should be acquired without injury 
to the understanding. If a child begins between four and 
five years of age, he may be allowed half a year for this es- 



NOTE, 

















1 






















1 








1 


1 




1 
















1 


1 






1 


1 


2 


1 


1 


1 












1 


1 


1 




1 


2 


2 


1 


2 


1 


2 


1 








1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


3 


3 


4 




2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


2 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 




8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


o 


8 


8 


8 




■a 

1 
1 


2 


1 




1 




















5 


2 


2 


3 


4 


2 


2 


















3 


4 


4 


4 


4 


5 


6 


















o 
o 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


8 


























1 










1 

1 


1 


1 
1 


1 




1 










1 


1 








1 


2 


1 


1 


2 


1 










1 


1 


1 






2 


2 


1 


2 


2 


1 










1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


3 




2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


2 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 








= 


= 




1 


= 




= 


BBS 


1 ' 


= 


—_ * 


B= 


1 




1 








1 


1 






1 










2 


3 


1 


2 


1 




1 


2 


1 




1 


2 


1 






3 


3 


4 


4 


5 


6 


2 


2 


4 


5 


2 


2 


2 


2 




3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 


4 


5 


5 


6 


7 




9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 


9 




as 


s— 


!-■ 


— 


— 


— • 


— 


— 


— 


•— ■ 


— ■ 


— ■ 


— < 


— 





276 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

sential preliminary step in arithmetic ; four or five minutes 
application every day, will be sufficient to teach him not only 
the relations of the first decade in numeration, but also how 
to write figures with accuracy and expedition. 

The next step, is, by far the most difficult in the science of 
arithmetic ; in treatises upon the subject, it is concisely passed 
over under the title of Numeration ; but it requires no small 
degree of care to make it intelligible to children, and we there- 
fore recommend, that, besides direct instruction upon the sub- 
ject, the child should be led, by degrees, to understand the 
nature of classification in general. Botany and natural histo- 
ry, though they are not pursued as sciences, are, notwithstand- 
ing, the daily occupation and amusement of children, and they 
supply constant examples of classification. In conversation, 
these may be familiarly pointed out; a grove, a flock, &c. 
are constantly before the eyes of our pupil, and he compre- 
hends as well as we do what is meant by two groves, two 
flocks, &c. The trees that form the grove are each of them 
individuals ; but let their numbers be what they may when 
they are considered as a grove, the grove is but one, and may 
be thought of and spoken of distinctly, without any relation to 
the number of single trees which it contains. From these, 
and similar observations, a child may be led to consider ten 
as the name for a whole, an integer ; a one, which may be rep- 
resented by the figure (1): this same figure may also stand 
for a hundred, or a thousand, as he will readily perceive 
hereafter. Indeed, the term one hundred will become famil- 
iar to him in conversation long before he comprehends that 
the word ten is used as an aggregate term, like a dozen, or a 
thousand. We do not use the word ten as the French do une 
dizaine ; ten does not, therefore, present the idea of an integer 
till we learn arithmetic. This is a defect in our language, 
which has arisen from the use of duodecimal numeration ; the 
analogies existing between the names of other numbers in pro- 
gression, is broken by the terms eleven and twelve. Thir- 
teen, fourteen, &c. are so obviously compounded of three and 
ten, and four and ten, as to strike the ears of children imme- 
diately, and when they advance as far as twenty, they readily 
perceive that a new series of units begins, and proceeds to 
thirty, and that thirty, forty &c. mean three tens, four tens, 
&LC. In pointing out these analogies to children, they become 
interested and attentive, they show that species of pleasure 
which arises from the perception of aptitude, or of truth. It 
can scarcely be denied that such a pleasure exists indepen- 
dently of every view of utility and fame ; and when we can 
once excite this feeling in the minds of our young pupils at 
any period of their education, we may be certain of success, 



ARITHMETIC. 277 

As soon as distinct notions have been acquired of the man- 
ner in which a collection of ten units becomes a new unit of 
a higher order, our pupil may be led to observe the utility of 
this invention by various examples, before he applies it to 
the rules of arithmetic. Let him count as far as ten with 
black pebbles,* for instance ; let him lay aside a white pebble to 
represent the collection of ten ; he may count another series 
of ten black pebbles, and lay aside another white one; and so 
on, till he has collected ten white pebbles: as each of the ten 
white pebbles represents ten black pebbles, he will have 
counted one hundred; and the ten white pebbles may now 
be represented by a single red one, which will stand for one 
hundred. This large number, which it takes up so much time 
to count, and which could not be comprehended at one view, 
is represented by a single sign. Here the difference of col- 
our forms the distinction : difference in shape or size, would 
answer the same purpose, as in the Roman notation, X for ten, 
L for fifty, C for one hundred, &c. All this is fully within 
the comprehension of a child of six years old, and will lead 
him to the value of written figures by the place which they 
hold when compared with one another. Indeed he may be 
led to invent this arrangement, a circumstance which would 
encourage him in every part of his education. When once he 
clearly comprehends that the third place, counting from the 
right, contains only figures which represent hundreds, &c. he 
will have conquered one of the greatest difficulties of arithme- 
tic. If a paper ruled with several perpendicular lines, a 
quarter of an inch asunder, be shown to him, he will see that 
the spaces or columns between these lines would distinguish 
the value of figures written in them, without the use of the 
sign (0) and he will see that (0) or zero, serves only to mark 
the place or situation of the neighbouring figures. 

An idea of decimal arithmetic, but without detail, may now 
be given to him, as it will not appear extraordinary to him that 
a unit should represent ten by having its place, or column 
changed; and nothing more is necessary in decimal arithme- 
tic, than to consider that figure which represented, at one time, 
an integer, or whole, as representing at another time the num- 
ber of tenth parts into which that whole may have been bro- 
ken. 

Our pupil may next be taught what is called numeration, 
which he cannot fail to understand, and in which he should be 
frequently exercised. Common addition will be easily under- 
stood by a child who distinctly perceives that the perpendicu- 
lar columns, or places in which figures are written, may dis- 



The word calculate is derived from the Latin calculus, a pebble, 



278 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

tinguish their value under various different denominations, as 
gallons, furlongs, shillings, &c. We should not tease children 
with long sums in avoirdupois weight, or load their frail mem- 
ories with tables of long-measure, and dry-measure, and ale- 
measure in the country, and ale-measure in London ; only let 
them cast up a few sums in different denominations, with the 
tables before them, and let the practice of addition be preserv- 
ed in their minds by short sums every day, and when they 
are between six and seven years old, they will be sufficiently 
masters of the first and most useful rule of arithmetic. 

To children who have been trained in this manner, subtrac- 
tion will be quite easy ; care, however, should be taken to 
give them a clear notion of the mystery of borrowing and pay- 
ing, which is inculcated in teaching subtraction. 
Prom 94 

Subtract 46 

" Six from four I can't, but six from ten and four remains j 
four and four is eight." 

And then, "One that I borrowed and four are five, five 
from nine, and four remains." 

This is the formula ; but is it ever explained — or can it be? 
Certainly not without some alteration. A child sees that six 
cannot be subtracted (taken) from four : more especially a 
child who is familiarly acquainted with the component parts 
of the names six and four : he sees that the sum 46 is less 
than the sum 94, and he knows that the lesser sum may be 
subtracted from the greater ; but he does not perceive the 
means of separating them figure by figure. Tell him, that 
though six cannot be deducted from four, yet it can from 
fourteen, and that if one of the tens which are contained in the 
(9) ninety in the uppermost row of the second column, be 
supposed to be taken away, or borrowed, from the ninety, and 
added to the four, the nine will be reduced to 8 (eighty,) and 
the four will become fourteen. Our pupil will comprehend 
this most readily ; he will see that 6, which could not be sub- 
tracted from 4, may be subtracted from fourteen, and he will 
remember that the 9 in the next column is to be considered as 
only (8). To avoid confusion, he may draw a stroke across 
the (9) and write 8 over* it ( |) and proceed to the remainder 
of the operation. This method for beginners is certainly very 
distinct, and may for some time, be employed with advantage ; 
and after its rationale has become familiar, we may explain 
the common method which depends upon this consideration. 

" If one number is to be deducted from another, the re- 
mainder will be the same, whether we add any given number 

* This method is recommended in the Cours de Math, par Camus, p. 38. 



ARITHMETIC. 279 

to the smaller number, or take away the same given number 

from the larger." For instance : 

Let the larger number . - - - 9 
And the smaller - - - - 4 

If you deduct 3 from the larger it will be - 6 
From this subtract the smaller - - 4 

The remainder will be - • - - 2 

Or if you add 3 to the smaller number, it will be 7 

Subtract this from the larger number - 9 

7 

The remainder will be .... 2 

Now in the common method of subtraction, the one which 
is borrowed is taken from the uppermost figure in the adjoin- 
ing column, and instead of altering that figure to one less, we 
add one to the lowest figure, which, as we have just shown, 
will have the same effect. The terms, however, that are 
commonly used in performing this operation, are improper. 
To say " one that I borrowed, and four" (meaning the lowest 
figure in the adjoining column) implies the idea that what was 
borrowed is now to be repaid to that lowest figure, which is 
not the fact. As to multiplication, we have little to say. Our 
pupil should be furnished, in the first instance, with a table 
containing the addition of the different units, which form the 
different products of the multiplication table : these he should, 
from time to time, add up as an exercise in addition ; and it 
should be frequently pointed out to him, that adding these 
figures so many times over, is the same as multiplying them 
by the number of times that they are added ; as three times 
3 means 3 added three times. Here one of the figures rep- 
resents a quantity, the other does not represent a quantity, 
it denotes nothing but the times, or frequency of repetition. 
Young people, as they advance, are apt to confound these 
signs, and to imagine, for instance, in the rule of three, &c. 
that the sums which they multiply together, mean quantities ; 
that 40 yards of linen may be multiplied by three and six- 
pence, &c. — an idea from which the misstatements in sums 
that are intricate, frequently arise. 

We have heard that the multiplication table has been set, like 
the Chapter of Kings, to a cheerful tune. This is a species of 
technical memory which we have long practised, and which 
can do no harm to the understanding ; it prevents the mind 
from no beneficial exertion, and may save much irksome la- 
bour. It is certainly to be wished, that our pupil should be 
expert in the multiplication table ; if the cubes which we 
have formerly mentioned, be employed for this purpose, the. 



280 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

notion of squaring figures will be introduced at the same time 
that the multiplication table is committed to memory. 

In division, what is called the Italian method of arranging 
the divisor and quotient, appears to be preferable to the com- 
mon one, as it places them in such a manner as to be easily 
multiplied by each other, and as it agrees with algebraic no- 
tation. 

The usual method is this : 
Divisor 

71)83467(1175 
Italian method ; 
Dividend 



83467 



71 



1175 

The rule of three is commonly taught in a manner merely 
technical : that it may be learned in this manner, so as to an- 
swer the common purposes of life, there can be no doubt ; 
and nothing is further from our design, than to depreciate any 
mode of instruction which has been sanctioned by experience : 
but our purpose is to point out methods of conveying instruc- 
tion that shall improve the reasoning faculty, and habituate 
our pupil to think upon every subject. We wish, therefore, 
to point out the course which the mind would follow to solve 
problems relative to proportion without the rule, and to turn 
our pupil's attention to the circumstances in which the rule as- 
sists us. 

The calculation of the price of any commodity, or the 
measure of any quantity, where the first term is one, may be 
always stated as a sum in the rule of three ; but as this state- 
ment retards, instead of expediting the operation, it is never 
practised. 

If one yard costs a shilling, how much will three yards 
cost? 

The mind immediately perceives, that the price added 3 
times together, or multiplied by three, gives the answer. If a 
certain number of apples are to be equally distributed 
amongst a certain number of boys, if the share of one is one 
apple, the share of ten or twenty is plainly equal to ten or 
twenty. But if we state that the share of three boys is 
twelve apples, and ask what number will be sufficient for nine 
boys, the answer is not obvious ; it requires consideration. 
Ask our pupil what made it so easy to answer the last ques- 
tion, he will readily say, " Because I knew what was the 
share of one." 

Then you could answer this new question if you knew the 
share of one boy? 

Yes, 



ARITHMETIC. 



281 



Cannot you find out what the share of one boy is when 
the share of three boys is twelve ? 

Four. 

What number of apples then will be enough, at the same 
rate, for nine boys ? 

Nine times four, that is thirty-six. 

In this process he does nothing more than divide the sec- 
ond number by the first, and multiply the quotient by the 
third; 12 divided by 3 is 4, which multiplied by 9 is 36. 
And this is, in truth, the foundation of the rule ; for though 
the golden rule facilitates calculation, and contributes admi- 
rably to our convenience, it is not absolutely necessary to the 
solution of questions relating to proportion. 

Again, " If the share of three boys is five apples, how 
many will be sufficient for nine ?" 

Our pupil will attempt to proceed as in the former ques- 
tion, and will begin by endeavouring to find out the share of 
one of the three boys ; but this is not quite so easy ; he will 
see that each is to have one apple, and part of another; but 
it will cost him some pains to determine exactly how much. 
When at length he finds that one and two-thirds is the share 
of one boy, before he can answer the question, he must multi- 
ply one and two-thirds by nine, which is an operation in 
fractions, a rule of which he at present knows nothing. But 
if he begins by multiplying the second, instead of dividing it 
previously by the first number, he will avoid the embarrass- 
ment occasioned by fractional parts, and will easily solve the 
question. 

3 : 5 : 9 : 15 
Multiply 5 

by 9 

it makes 45 
which product 45, divided by 3, gives 15. 

Here our pupil perceives, that if a given number, 12 for 
instance, is to be divided by one number, and multiplied by 
another, it will come to the, same, thing, whether he begins by 
dividing the given number, or by multiplying it. 

12 divided by 4 is 3, which 

multiplied by 6 is 18 : 

And 

12 multiplied by 6 is 72, which 

divided by 4 is 18. 

We recommend it to preceptors not to fatigue the memo- 
ries of their young pupils with sums which are difficult only 
from the number of figures which they require, but rather to 
give examples in practice, where aliquot parts are to be con- 
36 



282 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

sidered, and where their ingenuity may be employed with- 
out exhausting their patience. A variety of arithmetical ques- 
tions occur in common conversation, and from common inci- 
dents ; these should be made a subject of inquiry, and our 
pupils, amongst others, should try their skill : in short, what- 
ever can be taught in conversation, is clear gain in instruc- 
tion. 

We should observe, that every explanation upon these sub- 
jects should be recurred to from time to time, perhaps every 
two or three months ; as there are no circumstances in the 
the business of every day, which recall abstract speculations 
to the minds of children ; and the pupil who understands 
them to-day, may, without any deficiency of memory, forget 
them entirely in a few weeks. Indeed, the perception of the 
chain of reasoning, which connects demonstration, is what 
makes it truly advantageous in education. Whoever has oc- 
casion, in the business of life, to make use of the rule of three, 
may learn it effectually in a month as well as in ten years ; 
but the habit of reasoning cannot be acquired late in life with- 
out unusual labour, and uncommon fortitude. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

GEOMETRY. 

There is certainly no royal road to geometry, but tlie way 
may be rendered easy and pleasant by timely preparations 
for the journey. 

Without any previous knowledge of the country, or of its 
peculiar language, how can we expect that our young travel- 
ler should advance with facility or pleasure? We are anxious 
that our pupil should acquire a taste for accurate reasoning, 
and we resort to Geometry, as the most perfect, and the pur- 
est series of ratiocination which has been invented. Let us, 
then, sedulously avoid whatever may disgust him ; let his first 
steps be easy, and successful ; let them be frequently repeated 
until he can trace them without a guide. 

We have recommended in the chapter upon Toys, that 
children should, from their earliest years, be accustomed to 
the shape of what are commonly called regular solids; they 
should also be accustomed to the figures in mathematical 
diagrams. To these should be added their respective names, 
and the whole language of the science should be rendered as 
familiar as possible. 



GEOMETRY. 283 

Mr. Donne, an ingenious mathematician of Bristol, has 
published a prospectus of an Essay on Mechanical Geometry : 
he has executed, and employed with success, models in wood 
and metal for demonstrating propositions in geometry in a 
palpable manner. We have endeavoured, in vain, to procure 
a set of these models for our own pupils, but we have no 
doubt of their entire utility. 

What has been acquired in childhood, should not be suffer- 
ed to escape the memory. Dionysius* had mathematical di- 
agrams described upon the floors of his apartments, and thus 
recalled their demonstrations to his memory. The slightest 
addition that can be conceived, if it be continued daily, will 
imperceptibly, not only preserve what has been already ac- 
quired, but will, in a few years, amount to as large a stock of 
mathematical knowledge as we could wish. It is not our ob- 
ject to make mathematicians, but to make it easy to our pupil 
to become a mathematician, if his interest, or his ambition, 
make it desirable ; and, above all, to habituate him to clear 
reasoning, and close attention. And we may here remark, 
that an early acquaintance with the accuracy of mathematical 
demonstration, does not, within our experience, contract the 
powers of the imagination. On the contrary, we think that a 
young lady of twelve years old, who is now no more, and 
who had an uncommon propensity to mathematical reasoning, 
had an imagination remarkably vivid and inventive.! 

We have accustomed our pupils to form in their minds the 
conception of figures generated from points and lines, and sur- 
faces supposed to move in different directions, and with dif- 
ferent velocities. It may be thought, that this would be a 
difficult occupation for young minds ; but, upon trial, it will 
be found not only easy to them, but entertaining. In their 
subsequent studies, it will be of material advantage ; it will 
facilitate their progress not only in pure mathematics, but in 
mechanics and astronomy, and in every operation of the 
mind which requires exact reflection. 

To demand steady thought from a person who has not 
been trained to it, is one of the most unprofitable and danger- 
ous requisitions that can be made in education. 

" Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once, 
And petrify a genius to a dunce." 

In the usual commencement of mathematical studies, the 
learner is required to admit that a point, of which he sees the 
prototype, a dot before him, has neither length, breadth, nor 



* Plutarch. — Life of Dion. 

I V. Rivuletta, a little story written entirely by her in 1786. 



234 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

thickness. This, surely, is a degree of faith not absolutely 
necessary for the neophyte in science. It is an absurdity 
which has, with much success, been attacked in " Observa- 
tions on the Nature of Demonstrative Evidence," by Doctor 
Beddoes. 

We agree with the doctor as to the impropriety of calling 
a visible dot, a point without dimensions. But, notwithstand- 
ing the high respect which the author commands by a steady 
pursuit of truth on all subjects of human knowledge, we can- 
not avoid protesting against part of the doctrine which he has 
endeavoured to inculcate. That the names point, radius, &x. 
are derived from sensible objects, need not be disputed ; but 
surely the word centre can be understood by the human 
mind without the presence of any visible or tangible sub- 
stance. 

Where two lines meet, their junction cannot have dimen- 
sions; where two radii of a circle meet, they constitute the 
centre, and the name centre may be used for ever without 
any relation to a tangible or visible point. The word boun- 
dary, in like manner, means the extreme limit we call a line ; 
but to assert that it has thickness, would, from the very terms 
which are used to describe it, be a direct contradiction. 
Bishop Berkely, Mr. Walton, Philathetes Cantabrigiensis, 
and Mr. Benjamin Robins, published several pamphlets upon 
this subject about half a century ago. No man had a more 
penetrating mind than Berkely ; but we apprehend that Mr. 
Robins closed the dispute against him. This is not meant as 
an appeal to authority, but to apprize such of our readers as 
wish to consider the argument, where they may meet an ac- 
curate investigation of the subject. It is sufficient for our 
purpose, to warn preceptors not to insist upon their pupils' 
acquiescence in the dogma, that a point, represented by a 
dot, is without dimensions ; and at the same time to profess, 
that we understand distinctly what is meant by mathemati- 
cians when they speak of length without breadth, and of a 
superiices without depth 5 expressions which, to our minds, 
convey a meaning as distinct as the name of any visible or 
■tangible substance in nature, whose varieties from shade, dis- 
tance, colour, smoothness, heat, &c. are infinite, and not to be 
comprehended in any definition. 

In fact, this is a dispute merely about words, and as the 
extension of the art of printing puts it in the power of every 
man to propose and to defend his opinions at length, and at 
leisure, the best friends may support different sides of a ques- 
tion with mutual regard, and the most violent enemies with 
civility and decorum. Can we believe that Tycho Brahe 
lost half his nose in a dispute with a Danish nobleman about 
a mathematical demonstration ? 



MECHANICS. 285 



CHAPTER XVII. 



ON MECHANICS. 



Parents are anxious that children should be conversant 
with Mechanics, and with what are called the Mechanic 
Powers. Certainly no species of knowledge is better suited 
to the taste and capacity of youth, and yet it seldom forms a 
part of early instruction. Every body talks of the lever, the 
wedge, and the pulley, but most people perceive, that the no- 
tions which they have of their respective uses, are unsatisfac- 
tory, and indistinct ; and many endeavour, at a late period of 
life, to acquire a scientific and exact knowledge of the effects 
that are produced by implements which are in every body's 
hands, or that are absolutely necessary in the daily occupa- 
tions of mankind. 

An itinerant lecturer seldom fails of having a numerous and 
attentive auditory ; and if he does not communicate much of 
that knowledge which he endeavours to explain, it is not to 
be attributed either to his want of skill, or to the insufficiency 
of his apparatus, but to the novelty of the terms which he is 
obliged to use. Ignorance of the language in which any 
science is taught, is an insuperable bar to its being suddenly 
acquired; besides a precise knowledge of the meaning of 
terms, we must have an instantaneous idea excited in our 
minds whenever they are repeated ; and, as this can be ac- 
quired only by practice, it is impossible that philosophical 
lectures can be of much service to those who are not familiar- 
ly acquainted with the technical language in which they are 
delivered ; and yet there is scarcely any subject of human 
inquiry more obvious to the understanding, than the laws of 
mechanics. Only a small portion of geometry is necessary 
to the learner, if he even wishes to become master of the 
more difficult problems which are usually contained in a 
course of lectures, and most of what is practically useful, may 
be acquired by any person who is expert in common arith- 
metic. 

But we cannot proceed a single step without deviating from 
common language ; if the theory of the balance, or the lever, 
is to be explained, we immediately speak of space and time. 
To persons not versed in literature, it is probable that these 
terms appear more simple and unintelligible than they do to 
a man who has read Locke, and other metaphysical writers. 



286 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

The term space, to the bulk of mankind, conveys the idea of 
an interval ; they consider the word time as representing a 
definite number of years, days, or minutes ; but the metaphy- 
sician, when he hears the words space and time, immediately 
takes the alarm, and recurs to the abstract notions which are 
associated with these terms ; he perceives difficulties unknown 
to the unlearned, and feels a confusion of ideas which dis- 
tracts his attention. The lecturer proceeds with confidence, 
never supposing that his audience can be puzzled by such 
common terms. He means by space, the distance from the 
place whence a body begins to fall, to the place where its 
motion ceases ; and by time, he means the number of seconds, 
or of any determinate divisions of civil time which elapse 
from the commencement of any motion to its end ; or, in 
other words, the duration of any given motion. After this 
has been frequently repeated, any intelligent person perceives 
the sense in which they are used by the tenour of the dis- 
course ; but in the interim, the greatest part of what he has 
heard, cannot have been understood, and the premises upon 
which every subsequent demonstration is founded, are un- 
known to him. If this be true, when it is affirmed of two 
terms only, what must be the situation of those to whom eight 
or ten unknown technical terms occur at the commencement of 
a lecture ? A complete knowledge, such a knowledge as is not 
only full, but familiar, of all the common terms made use of 
in theoretic and practical mechanics, is, therefore, absolutely 
necessary before any person can attend public lectures in 
natural philosophy with advantage. 

What has been said of public lectures, may, with equal 
propriety, be applied to private instruction 5 and it is proba- 
ble, that inattention to this circumstance is the reason why so 
few people have distinct notions of natural philosophy. 
Learning by rote, or even reading repeatedly, definition^ of 
the technical terms of any science, must undoubtedly facili- 
tate its acquirement ; but conversation, with the habit of ex- 
plaining the meaning of words, and the structure of common 
domestic implements, to children, is the sure and effectual 
method of preparing the mind for the acquirement of science. 
The ancients, in learning this species of knowledge, had an 
advantage of which we are deprived: many of their terms of 
science were the common names of familiar objects. How 
few do we meet who have a distinct notion of the words 
radius, angle, or valve. A Roman peasant knew what a 
radius or a valve meant, in their original signification, as well 
as a modern professor ; he knew that a valve was a door, 
and a radius a spoke of a wheel ; but an English child finds 
it as difficult to remember the meaning of the word angle, as 
the word parabola. An angle is usually confounded, by those 



MECHANICS. , 287 

who are ignorant of geometry and mechanics, with the word 
triangle, and the long reasoning of many a laborious instructer 
has been confounded by this popular mistake. When a glass 
pump is shown to an admiring spectator, he is desired to 
watch the motion of the valves : he looks " above, about, and 
underneath ;" but, ignorant of the word valve, he looks* in 
vain. Had he been desired to look at the motion of the little 
doors that opened and shut, as the handle of the pump was 
moved up and down, he would have followed the lecturer 
with ease, and would have understood all his subsequent rea- 
soning. If a child attempts to push any thing heavier than 
himself, his feet slide away from it, and the object can be 
moved only at intervals, and by sudden starts ; but if he be 
desired to prop his feet against the wall, he finds it easy to 
push what before eluded his little strength. Here the use of 
a fulcrum, or fixed point, by means of which bodies may be 
moved, is distinctly understood. If two boys lay a board 
across a narrow block of wood, or stone, and balance each 
other at the opposite ends of it, they acquire another idea of 
a centre of motion. If a poker is rested against a bar of a 
grate, and employed to lift up the coals, the same notion of a 
centre is recalled to their minds. If a boy, sitting upon a 
plank, a sofa, or form, be lifted up by another boy's apply- 
ing his strength at one end of the seat, whilst the other end 
of the seat rests on the ground, it will be readily perceived 
by them, that the point of rest, or centre of motion, or ful- 
crum, is the ground, and that the fulcrum is not, as in the 
first instance, between the force that lifts, and the thing that 
is lifted ; the fulcrum is at one end, the force which is exert- 
ed acts at the other end, and the weight is in the middle. In 
trying these simple experiments, the terms fulcrum, centre of 
motion, &c. should be constantly employed, and in a very 
short time they would be as familiar to a boy of eight years 
old as to any philosopher. If for some years the same words 
frequently recur to him in the. same sense, is it to be supposed 
that a lecture upon the balance and the lever would be as un- 
intelligible to him as to persons of good abilities, who at a 
more advanced age hear these terms from the mouth of a lec- 
turer ? A boy in such circumstances would appear as if he 
had a genius for mechanics, when, perhaps, he might have 
less taste for the science, and less capacity, than the generali- 
ty of the audience. Trifling as it may at first appear, it will 
not be found a trifling advantage, in the progress of educa- 
tion, to attend to this circumstance. A distinct knowledge of 
a few terms, assists a learner in his first attempts ; finding 
these successful, he advances with confidence, and acquires 
new ideas without difficulty or disgust. Rousseau, with his 
usual eloquence, has inculcated the necessity of annexing 



288 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

idea to words ; he declaims against the splendid ignorance of 
men who speak b}' rote, and who are rich in words amidst 
the most deplorable poverty of ideas. To store the memory 
of his pupil with images of things, he is willing to neglect, and 
leave to hazard, his acquirement of language. It requires no 
elaborate argument to prove that a boy, whose mind was 
stored with accurate images of external objects, of experi- 
mental knowledge, and who had acquired habitual dexterity, 
but who was unacquainted with the usual signs by which 
ideas are expressed, would be incapable of accurate reason- 
ing, or would, at best, reason only upon particulars. With- 
out general terms, he could not abstract ; he could not, until 
his vocabulary was enlarged, and familiar to him, reason upon 
general topics, or draw conclusions from general principles : 
in short, he would be in the situation of those, who, in the so- 
lution of difficult and complicated questions relative to quanti- 
ty, are obliged to employ tedious and perplexed calculations, 
instead of the clear and comprehensive methods that unfold 
themselves by the use of signs in algebra. 

It is not necessary, in teaching children the technical lan- 
guage of any art or science, that we should pursue the same 
order that is requisite in teaching the science itself. Order is 
required in reasoning, because all reasoning is employed in 
deducing propositions from one another in a regular series ; 
but where terms are employed merely as names, this order 
may be dispensed with. It is, however, of great consequence 
to seize the proper time for introducing a new term ; a mo- 
ment when attention is awake, and when accident has pro- 
duced some particular interest in the object. In every fami- 
ly, opportunities of this sort occur without any preparation, 
and such opportunities are far preferable to a formal lecture 
and a splendid apparatus for the first lessons in natural phi- 
losophy and chemistry. If the pump belonging to the house 
is out of order, and the pump-maker is set to work, an excel- 
lent opportunity presents itself for variety of instruction. 
The centre pin of the handle is taken out, and a long rod is 
drawn up by degrees, at the end of which a round piece of 
wood is seen partly covered with leather. Your pupil imme- 
diately asks the name of it, and the pump-maker prevents 
your answer, by informing little master that it is called a 
sucker. You show it to the child, he handles it, feels whether 
the leather is hard or soft, and at length discovers that there 
is a hole through it, which is covered with a little flap or 
door. This he learns from the workmen, is called a clack. 
The child should now be permitted to plunge the piston (by 
which name it should no7v be called) into a tub of water ; in 
drawing it backwards and forwards, he will perceive that the 
clack, which should now be called the valve, opens and shuts 



MECHANICS. 289 

as the piston is drawn backwards and forwards. It will be 
better not to inform the child how this mechanism is em- 
ployed in the pump. If the names sucker and piston, clack 
and valve, are fixed in his memory, it will be sufficient for his 
first lesson. At another opportunity, he should be present 
when the fixed or lower valve of the pump is drawn up ; he 
will examine it, and find that it is similar to the valve of the 
piston ; if he sees it put down into the pump, and sees the 
piston put into its place, and set to work, the names that he 
has learned will be fixed more deeply in his mind, and he 
will have some general notion of the whole apparatus. From 
time to time these names should be recalled to his memory 
on suitable occasions, but he should not be asked to repeat 
them by rote. What has been said, is not intended as a les- 
son for a child in mechanics, but as a sketch of a method of 
teaching which has been employed with success. 

Whatever repairs are carried on in a house, children should 
be permitted to see : whilst every body about them seems in- 
terested, they become attentive from sympathy ; and when- 
ever action accompanies instruction, it is sure to make an im- 
pression. If a lock is out of order, when it is taken off, show 
it to your pupil ; point out some of its principal parts, and 
name them ; then put it into the hands of a child, and let him 
manage it as he pleases. Locks are full of oil, and black 
with dust and iron ; but if children have been taught habits 
of neatness, they may be clock-makers and white-smiths with- 
out spoiling their clothes, or the furniture of a house. Upon 
every occasion of this sort, technical terms should be made 
familiar ; they are of great use in the every-day business of 
life, and are peculiarly serviceable in giving orders to work- 
men, who, when they are spoken to in a language that they 
are used to, comprehend what is said to them, and work with 
alacrity. 

An early use of a rule and pencil, and easy access to prints 
of machines, of architecture, and of the implements of trades, 
are of obvious use in this part of education. The machines 
published by the Society of Arts in London ; the prints in 
Desaguliers, Emerson, Le Spectacle de la Nature, Machines 
approuvees par l'Academie, Chambers's Dictionary, Berthoud 
sur l'Horlogerie, Dictionnaire des Arts et des Metiers, may, 
in succession, be put into the hands of children. The most 
simple should be first selected, and the pupils should be ac- 
customed to attend minutely to one print before another is 
given to them. A proper person should carefully point out 
and explain to them the first prints that they examine ; they 
may afterwards be left to themselves. 

To understand prints of machines, a previous knowledge of 
what is meant by an elevation, a profile, a section, a perspec- 
37 



290 rRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

tive view, and a (vue d'oiseau) bird's-eye view, is necessary. 
To obtain distinct ideas of sections, a few models of common 
furniture, as chests of drawers, bellows, grates, &c. may be 
provided, and may be cut asunder in different directions. 
Children easily comprehend this part of drawing, and its uses, 
which may be pointed out in books of architecture ; its ap- 
plication to the common business of life is so various and im- 
mediate, as to fix it for ever in the memory ; besides, the 
habit of abstraction, which is acquired by drawing the sec* 
tions of complicated architecture or machinery, is highly ad- 
vantageous to the mind. The parts which we wish to express, 
are concealed, and are suggested partly by the elevation or 
profile of the figure, and partly by the connexion between the 
end proposed in the construction of the building, machine, &c. 
and the means which are adapted to effect it. 

A knowledge of perspective, is to be acquired by an ope- 
ration of the mind directly opposite to %hat is necessary in 
delineating the sections of bodies ; the mind must here be in- 
tent only upon the objects that are delineated upon the retina, 
exactly what we see ; it must forget or suspend the knowledge 
which it has acquired from experience, and must see with the 
eye of childhood, no further than the surface. Every person, 
who is accustomed to drawing in perspective, sees external 
nature, when he pleases, merely as a picture : this habit con- 
tributes much to form a taste for the fine arts ; it may, how- 
ever, be carried to excess. There are improvers who prefer 
the most dreary ruin to an elegant and convenient mansion, 
and who prefer a blasted stump to the glorious foliage of 
the oak. 

Perspective is not, however, recommended merely as a 
means of improving the taste, but as it is useful in facilitating 
the knowledge of mechanics. When once children are fa- 
miliarly acquainted with perspective, and with the representa- 
tions of machines by elevations, sections, &c. prints will sup- 
ply them with an extensive variety of information ; and when 
they see real machines, their structure and uses will be easily 
comprehended. The noise, the seeming confusion, and the 
size of several machines, make it difficult to comprehend and 
combine their various parts, without much time, and repeated 
examination ; the reduced size of prints lays the whole at once 
before the eye, and tends to facilitate not only comprehen- 
sion, but contrivance. Whoever can delineate progressively 
as he invents, saves much labour, much time, and the hazard 
of confusion. Various contrivances have been employed to 
facilitate drawing in perspective, as may be seen in " Cabinet 
de Servier, Memoires of the French Academy, Philosophical 
Transactions, and lately in the Repertory of Arts." The fol- 
lowing is simple, cheap, and portable. 



MECHANICS. 291 

PLATE 1. FIG. 1. 

ABC, three mahogany boards, two, four, and six inches 
long, and of the same breadth respectively, so as to double in 
the manner represented. 

plate 1. fig. 2. 

The part A is screwed, or clamped to a table of a convenient 
height, and a sheet of paper, one edge of which is put under 
the piece A, will be held fast to the table. 

The index P is to be set (at pleasure) with its sharp point 
to any part of an object which the eye sees through E, the 
eye-piece. 

The machine is now to be doubled as in Fig. 2, taking care 
that the index be not disturbed ; the point, which was before 
perpendicular, will then approach the paper horizontally, and 
the place to which it points on the paper, must be marked 
with a pencil. The machine must be again unfolded, and 
another point of the object is to be ascertained in the same 
manner as before ; the space between these points may be 
then connected with a line ; fresh points should then be taken, 
marked with a pencil, and connected with a line ; and so on 
successively, until the whole object is delineated. 

Besides the common terms of art, the technical terms of 
science should, by degrees, be rendered familiar to our pupils. 
Amongst these the words Space and Time occur, as we have 
observed, the soonest, and are of the greatest importance. 
Without exact definitions, or abstract reasonings, a general no- 
tion of the use of these terms may be inculcated by employing 
them frequently in conversation, and by applying them to 
things and circumstances which occur without preparation, 
and about which children are interested, or occupied. u There 
is a great space left between the words in that p'rinting." 
The child understands, that space in this sentence means white 
paper between black letters. " You should leave a greater 
space between the flowers which you are planting" — he knows 
that you mean more ground. " There is a great space between 
that boat and the ship"— space of water. " I hope the hawk 
will not be able to catch that pigeon, there is a great space 
between them"— space of air. " The men who are pulling that 
sack of corn into the granary, have raised it through half the 
space between the door and the ground." A child cannot be 
at any loss for the meaning of the word space in these or any 
other practicable examples which may occur ; but he should 
also be used to the word space as a technical expression, and 
then he will not be confused or stopped by a new term when 
employed in mechanics. 

The word time may be used in the same manner upon num- 
berless occasions to express the duration of any movement 
which is performed by the force of men, or horses, wind, wa- 
ter, or any mechanical power. 



292 PRACTICAL EDCCATION. 

" Did the horses in the mill we saw yesterday, go as fast 
as the horses which are drawing the chaise?" " No, not as 
fast as the horses go at present on level ground ; but they 
went as fast as the chaise-horses do when they go up hill, or 
as fast as horses draw a wagon." 

" How many times do the sails of that wind-mill go round 
in a minute 1 Let us count ; I will look at my watch ; do you 
count how often the sails go round ; wait until that broken 
arm is uppermost, and when you say nozo, I will begin to 
count the time ; when a minute has past, I will tell you." 

After a few trials, this experiment will become easy to a 
child of eight or nine years old ; he may sometimes attend to 
the watch, and at other times count the turns of the sails ; he 
may easily be made to apply this to a horse-mill, or to a water- 
mill, a corn-fan, or any machine that has a rotatory motion ; 
he will be entertained with his new employment ; he will com- 
pare the velocities of different machines ; the meaning of this 
word will be easily added to his vocabulary. 

" Does that part of the arms of the wind-mill which is near 
the axle-tree, or centre, I mean that part which has no cloth or 
sail upon it, go as fast as the ends of the arms that are the 
farthest from the centre ?" 
" No, not near so fast." 

" But that part goes as often round in a minute as the rest 
of the sail." 

" Yes, but it does not go as fast." 
" How so?" 

" It does not go so far round." 

" No, it does not. The extremities of the sails go through 
more space in the same time than the part near the centre." 

By conversations like these, the technical meaning of the 
word velocity may be made quite familiar to a child much 
younger than what has been mentioned ; he may not only 
comprehend that velocity means time and space considered 
together, but if he is sufficiently advanced in arithmetic, he 
may be readily taught how to express and compare in num- 
bers velocities composed of certain portions of time and space. 
He will not inquire about the abstract meaning of the word 
space ; he has seen space measured on paper, on timber, on 
the water, in the air, and he perceives distinctly that it is a 
term equally applicable to all distances that can exist between 
objects of any sort, or that he can see, feel, or imagine. 

Momentum, a less common word, the meaning of which is 
not quite so easy to convey to a child, may, by degrees, be 
explained to him : at every instant he feels the effect'of mo- 
mentum in his own motions, and in the motions of everything 
that strikes against him ; his feelings and experience require 
only proper terms to become the subject of his conversation* 



MECHANICS. 293 

When he begins to inquire, it is the proper time to instruct 
him. For instance, a boy of ten years old, who had acquired 
the meaning of some other terms in science, this morning ask- 
ed the meaning of the word momentum ; he was desired to 
explain what he thought it meant. 

He answered, " Force." 

" What do you mean by force 2" 

" Effort." 

" Of what ?" 

" Of gravity." 

" Do you mean that force by which a body is drawn down 
to the earth ?" 

" No." 

" Would a feather, if it were moving with the greatest con- 
ceivable swiftness or velocity, throw down a castle ?" 

" No."* 

" Would a mountain torn up by the roots, as fabled in Mil- 
ton, if it moved with the least conceivable velocity, throw down 
a castle?" 

" Yes, I think it would." 

The difference between an uniform, and an uniformly ac- 
celerated motion, the measure of the velocity of falling bodies, 
the composition of motions communicated to the same body 
in different directions at the same time, and the cause of the 
curvilinear track of projectiles, seem, at first, intricate subjects,. 
and above the capacity of boys of ten or twelve years old % 
but by short and well-timed lessons, they may be explained 
without confounding or fatiguing their attention. We tried 
another experiment whilst this chapter was writing, to deter- 
mine whether we had asserted too much upon this subject. 
After a conversation between two boys upon the descent of 
bodies towards the earth, and upon the measure of the increas- 
ing velocity with which they fall, they were desired, with a 
view to ascertain whether they understood what was said, to 
invent a machine which should show the difference between 
an uniform and an accelerated velocity, and in particular to 
show, by ocular demonstration, " that if one body moves in 
a given time, through a given space, with an uniform motion, 
and if another body moves through the same space in the 
same time with an uniformly accelerated motion, the uniform 
motion of the one will be equal to half the accelerated motion 

of the other." The eldest boy, H , thirteen years old, 

invented and executed the following machine for this pur- 
pose: 

* When this question was some time afterwards repeated to S , he ob- 
served, that the feather would throw down the castle, if its swiftness were so 
great as to make up for its want of weight. 



294 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Plate 1, Fig 3. 6 is a bracket 9 inches by 5, consisting of 
a back and two sides of hard wood : two inches from the 
back two slits are made in the sides of the bracket half an 
inch deep, and an eighth of an inch wide, to receive the two 
wire pivots of a roller; which roller is composed of a cylin- 
der, three inches long and half an inch diameter; and a cone 
three inches long and one inch diameter in its largest part or 
base. The cylinder and cone are not separate, but are turned 
out of one piece ; a string is fastened to the cone at its base 
a„with a bullet or any other small weight at the other end of 
it ; and another string and weight are fastened to the cylin- 
der at c ; the pivot p of wire is bent into the form of a handle ; 
if the handle is turned either way, the strings will be respec- 
tively wound up upon the cone and cylinder; their lengths 
should now be adjusted, so that when the- string on the 
cone is wound up as far as the cone will permit, the two weights 
may be at an equal distance from the bottom of the bracket, 
which bottom we suppose to be parallel with the pivots; the 
bracket should now be fastened against a wall, at such a 
height as to let the weights lightly touch the floor when the 
strings are unwound: silk or bobbin is a proper kind of string 
for this purpose, as it is woven or plaited, and therefore is 
not liable to twist. When the strings are wound up to their 
greatest heights, if the handle be suddenly let go, both the 
weights will begin to fall at the same moment; but the weight 
1, will descend at first but slowly, and will pass through but 
small space compared with the weight 2. As they descend 
further, No. 2 still continues to get before No. 1 ; but after 
some time, No. 1 begins to overtake No. 2, and at last they 
come to the ground together. If this machine is required to 
show exactly the space that a falling body would describe in 
given times, the cone and cylinder must have grooves cut spi- 
rally upon their circumference, to direct the string with pre- 
cision. To describe these spiral lines, became a new subject 
of inquiry. The young mechanics were again eager to exert 
their powers of invention; the eldest invented a machine 
upon the same principle as that which is used by the best 
workmen for cutting clock fusees ; and it is described in Ber- 
thoud. The youngest invented the engine delineated, Plate 1, 

Fi s- 4 - 

The roller or cone (or both together) which it is required 
to cut spirally, must be furnished with a handle, and a tooth- 
ed wheel to, which turns a smaller wheel or pinion w. This 
pinion carries with it a screw s, which draws forward the pup- 
pet p, in which the graver or chisel g slides without shake. 
This graver has a point or edge shaped properly to form the 
spiral groove, with a shoulder to regulate the depth of the 
groove. The iron rod r. which is firmly fastened in the pup- 



PJatel 



.Perspective 1 vewafa Drawing iMachine 
1' 'ig. J. 




Section pf a 

2J rearing A/ar/u/'ie 




\£achine wr 

dewing the* 

of accelerated 2fotion 




•hewing the Laws 



~Mach int jvr < 'u£ting Spiral grooves 
Fig. 4. 




MECHANICS. 295 

pet, slides through mortises at vim, and guides the puppet in a 
straight line. 

The rest of the machine is intelligible from the drawing. 

A simple method of showing the nature of compound forces 
was thought of at the same time. An ivory ball was placed at 
the corner of a board sixteen inches broad, and two feet long ; 
two other similar balls were let fall down inclined troughs 
against the first ball in different directions, but at the same 
time. One fell in a direction parallel to the length of the 
board ; the other ball fell back in a direction parallel to its 
breadth. By raising the troughs such a force was communi- 
cated to each of the falling balls, as was sufficient to drive the 
ball that was at rest to that side or end of the board which 
was opposite, or at right angles, to the line of its motion. 

When both balls were let fall together, they drove the ball 
that was at rest diagonally, so as to reach the opposite cor- 
ner. If the same board were placed as an inclined plane, at 
an angle of five or six degrees, a ball placed at one of its up- 
permost corners, would fall with an accelerated motion in a 
direct line ; but if another ball were made (by descending 
through an inclined trough) to strike the first ball at right an- 
gles to the line of its former descent, at the moment when it 
began to descend, it would not, as in the former experiment, 
move diagonally, but would describe a curve. 

The reason why it describes a curve, and why that curve 
is not circular, was easily understood. Children who are thus 
induced to invent machines or apparatus for explaining and 
demonstrating the laws of mechanism, not only fix indelibly 
those laws in their own minds, but enlarge their powers of in- 
vention, and preserve a certain originality of thought, which 
leads to new discoveries* 

We therefore strongly recommend it to teachers, to use as 
few precepts as possible in the rudiments of science, and to en- 
courage their pupils to use their own understandings as they 
advance. In mechanism, a general view of the powers and 
uses of engines is all that need be taught ; where more is ne- 
cessary, such a foundation with the assistance of good books, 
and the examination of good machinery, will perfect the 
knowledge of theory and facilitate practice. 

At first we should not encumber our pupils with accurate 
demonstration. The application of mathematics to mechanics 
is undoubtedly of the highest use, and has opened a source 
of ingenious and important inquiry. Archimedes, the great- 
est name amongst mechanic philosophers, scorned the mere 
practical application of his sublime discoveries, and at the 
moment when the most stupendous effects were producing by 
his engines, he was so deeply absorbed in abstract specula- 
tion as to be insensible to the fear of death. We do not 



29G PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

mean, therefore, to undervalue either the application of strict 
demonstration to problems in mechanics, or the exhibition of 
the most accurate machinery in philosophical lectures; but 
we wish to point out a method of giving a general notion of 
the mechanical organs to our pupils, which shall be immedi- 
ately obvious to their comprehension, and which may serve 
as a sure foundation for future improvement. We are told by 
a vulgar proverb, that though we believe what we see, we 
have yet a higher belief in what we feel. This adage is partic- 
ularly applicable to mechanics. When a person perceives 
the effect of his own bodily exertions with different engines, 
and when he can compare in a rough manner their relative 
advantages, he is not disposed to reject their assistance, or 
expect more than is reasonable from their application. The 
young theorist in mechanics thinks he can produce a perpetu- 
al motion ! When he has been accustomed to refer to the 
plain dictates of common sense and experience, on this, as well 
as on every other subject, he will not easily be led astray by 
visionary theories. 

To bring the sense of feeling to our assistance in teaching 
the uses of the mechanic powers, the following apparatus 
was constructed, to which we have given the name Panorga- 
non. 

It is composed of two principal parts : a frame to contain 
the moving machinery ; and a capstan or windlass, which is 
erected on a sill or plank, that is sunk a few inches into the 
ground : the frame is by this means, and by six braces or 
props, rendered steady. The cross rail, or transom, is 
strengthened by braces and a king-post to make it lighter and 
cheaper. The capstan consists of an upright shaft, upon 
which are fixed two drums ; about which a rope may be 
wound up, and two levers or arms by which it may be 
turned round. There is also a screw of iron coiled round 
the lower part of the shaft, to show the properties of the 
screw as a mechanic power. The rope which goes round the 
drum passes over one of the pulleys near to the top of the 
frame, and under another pulley near the bottom of the frame. 
As two drums of different sizes are employed, it is necessary 
to have an upright roller to conduct the rope in a proper di- 
rection to the pulleys, when either of the drums is used. 
Near the frame, and in the direction in which the rope runs, 
is laid a platform or road of deal boards, one board in 
breadth, and twenty or thirty feet long, upon which a small 
sledge loaded with different weights may be drawn. Plate 
2. Fig 1. 

F. F. The frame. 

b. b. Braces to keep the frame steady. 

a. a. a. Angular braces to strengthen the transom ; and 
also a king-post. 



Paae 2o6, 



Panor o'aiiOTi 



J[ J ] a ic2. 




MECHANICS. 29? 

S. A round, taper shaft, strengthened above and below 
the mortices with iron hoops. 

LL. Two arms, or levers, by which the shaft, &c. are to 
be moved round. 

D D. The drum, which has two rims of different circum- 
ferences. 

R. The roller to conduct the rope. 

P. The pulley, round which the rope passes to the larger 
drum. 

P 2» Another pulley to answer to the smaller drum. 

P 3. A pulley through which the rope passes when ex- 
periments are tried with levers, &c. 

P 4. Another pulley through which the rope passes when 
the sledge is used. 

Ro. The road of deal boards for the sledge to move on. 

SI. The sledge, with pieces of hard wood attached to it, 
to guide it on the road. 

Uses of the Panorganon. 

As this machine is to be moved by the force of men or 
children, and as their force varies not only with the strength 
and weight of each individual, but also according to the dif- 
ferent manner in which that strength or weight is applied ; 
it is, in the first place, requisite to establish one determinate 
mode of applying human force to the machine ; and also a 
method of determining the relative force of each individual 
whose strength is applied to it. 

To estimate the force with which a person can draw horizontally 
by a rope over his shoulder. 

EXPERIMENT I. 

Hang a common long scale-beam (without scales or chains) 
from the top or transom of the frame, so as that one end of it 
may come within an inch of one side or post of the machine. 
Tie a rope to the hook of the scale-beam, where the chains 
of the scale are usually hung, and pass it through the pulley 
P 3, which is about four feet from the ground ; let the person 
pull this rope from 1 towards 2, turning his back to the ma- 
chine, and pulling the rope over his shoulder — PI. 2. Fig. 6. 
As the pulley may be either too high or too low to permit the 
rope to be horizontal, the person who pulls it should be pla- 
ced ten or fifteen feet from the machine, which will lessen the 
angular direction of the cord, and the inaccuracy of the ex- 
periment. Hang weights to the other end of the scale-beam, 
until the person who pulls can but just walk forward, pulling 
fairly without propping his feet against any thing. This 
weight will estimate the force with which he can draw hori- 
38 



293 FKACTICAL EDUCATION. 

zontally by a rope over his shoulder.* Let a child who tries 
this, walk on the board with dry shoes ; let him afterwards 
chalk his shoes, and afterwards try it with his shoes soaped : 
he will find that he can pull with different degrees of force in 
these different circumstances; but when he tries the follow- 
ing experiments, let his shoes be always dry, that his force 
may be always the same. 

To show the power of the three different sorts of levers. 

EXPERIMENT II. 

Instead of putting the cord that comes from the scale-beam, 
as in the last experiment, over the shoulder of the boy, hook 
it to the end 1 of the lever L, Fig. 2. Plate 2. This lever is 
passed t hrough a socket — Plate 2. Fig. 3. — in which it can be 
shifted from one of its ends towards the other, and can be 
fastened at any place by the screw of the socket. This 
socket has two gudgeons, upon which it, and the lever which 
it contains, can turn. This socket and its gudgeons can be 
lifted out cf the holes in which it plays, between the rail 
R R, Plate 2. Fig. 2. and may be put into other holes at R R, 
Fig. 5. Loop another rope to the other end of this lever, 
and let the boy pull as before. Perhaps it should be pointed 
out, that the boy must walk in a direction contrary to that in 
which he walked before, viz. from 1 towards 3. The height 
to which the weight ascends, and the distance to which the 
boy advances, should be carefully marked and measured j 
and it will be found, that he can raise the weight to the same 
height, advancing through the same space as in the former 
experiment. In this case, as both ends of the lever moved 
through equal spaces, the lever only changed the direction 
of the motion, and added no mechanical power to the direct 
strength of the boy. 

EXPERIMENT III. 

Shift the lever to its extremity in the socket ; the middle of 
the lever will be now opposite to the pulley, PI. 2. Fig. 4. — 
hook to it the rope that goes through the pulley P 3, and fas- 
ten to the other end of the lever the rope by which the boy 
is to pull. This will be a lever of the second kind, as it is call- 
ed in books of mechanics ; in using which, the resistance is 
placed between the centre of motion or fulcrum, and the moving 
power. He will now raise double the weight that he did in 
Experiment n, and he will advance through double the space. 



* Were it thought necessary to make these experiments perfectly accurate ; 
.a segment of a pulley, the radius of which is half the length of the scale- 
beam, should be attached to the end of the beam ; upon which the cord may 
apply itself, and the pulley (P 3) should be raised or lowered, to bring the 
rape horizontally from the man's shoulder when in the attitude of drawing. 



MECHANICS. 299 

EXPERIMENT IV. 

Shift the lever, and the socket which forms the axis (with- 
out shifting the lever from the place in which it was in the 
socket in the last experiment) to the holes that are prepared 
for it at R R, Plate 2. Fig. 5. The free end of the lever E 
will now be opposite to the rope, and to the pulley (over which 
the rope comes from the scale-beam.) Hook this rope to it, 
and hook the rope by which the boy pulls, to the middle of 
the lever. The effect will now be different from what it was 
in the two last experiments ; the boy will advance only half 
as far, and will raise only half as much weight as before. 
This is called a lever of the third sort, The first and second 
kinds of levers are used in quarrying ; and the operations of 
many tools may be referred to them. The third kind of lever 
is employed but seldom, but its properties may be observed 
with advantage whilst a long ladder is raised, as the man who 
raises it, is obliged to exert an increasing force until the lad- 
der is nearly perpendicular. When this lever is used, it is ob- 
vious, from what has been said, that the power must always 
pass through less space than the thing which is to be moved 5 
it can never, therefore, be of service in gaining power. But 
the object of some machines, is to increase velocity, instead 
of obtaining power, as in a sledge-hammer moved by mill- 
work. (V. the plates in Emerson's Mechanics, No. 236.) 

The experiments upon levers may be varied at pleasure, 
increasing or diminishing the mechanical advantage, so as to 
balance the power and the resistance, to accustom the learn- 
ers to calculate the relation between the power and the effect 
in different circumstances ; always pointing out, that whatev- 
er excess there is in the power,* or in the resistance, is al- 
ways compensated by the difference of space through which 
the inferior passes. 

The experiments which we have mentioned, are sufficient- 
ly satisfactory to a pupil, as to the immediate relation be- 
tween the power and the resistance : but the different spaces 
through which the power and the resistance move when one 
exceeds the other, cannot be obvious, without they pass 
through much larger spaces than levers will permit. 

EXPERIMENT V. 

Place the sledge on the farthest end of the wooden road — 
Plate 2. Fig. 1. — fasten a rope to the sledge, and conduct it 
through the lowest pulley P 4, and through the pulley P 3, so 
as that the boy may be enabled to draw it by the rope pas- 
sed over his shoulder. The sledge must now be loaded, un- 

* The word power is here used in a popular sense, to denote the strength 
or efficacy that is employed to produce an effect by means of any engine. 



300 .PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

til the boy can but just advance with short steps steadily up- 
on the wooden road ; this must be done with care, as there 
will be but just room for him beside the rope. He will meet 
the sledge exactly on the middle of the road, from which he 
must step aside to pass the sledge. Let the time of this ex- 
periment be noted. It is obvious that the boy and the sledge 
move with equal velocity; there is, therefore, no mechanical 
advantage obtained by the pulleys. The weight that he can 
draw will be about half a hundred, if he weigh about nine 
stone ; but the exact force with which the boy draws, is to be 
known by Experiment r. 

The wheel and axle. 
This organ is usually called in mechanics, The axis in pt- 
ritrochio. A hard name, which might well be spared, as the 
word windlass or capstan would convey a more distinct idea 
to our pupils. 

EXPERIMENT VI. 

To the largest drum, Plate 2. Fig. 1. fasten a cord, and 
pass it through the pulley P downwards, and through the pul- 
ley P 4 to the sledge placed at the end of the wooden road, 
which is farthest from the machine. Let the boy, by a rope 
fastened to the extremity of one of the arms of the capstan, 
and passed over his shoulder, draw the capstan round ; he 
will wind the rope round the drum, and draw the sledge upon 
its road. To make the sledge advance twenty-four feet upon 
its road, the boy must have walked circularly 144 feet^ which 
is six times as far, and he will be able to draw about three 
hundred weight, which is six times as much as in the last ex- 
periment. 

It may now be pointed out, that the difference of space, 
passed through by the power in this experiment, is exactly 
equal to the difference of weight, which the boy could draw 
without the capstan. 

EXPERIMENT VII. 

Let the rope be now attached to the smaller drum ; the 
boy will draw nearly twice as much weight upon the sledge 
as before, and will go through double the space. 

EXPERIMENT VIII. 

Where there are a number of boys, let five or six of them, 
whose power of drawing (estimated as in Experiment i) 
amounts to six times as much as the force of the boy at the 
capstan, pull, at the end of the rope which was fastened to the 
sledge; they will balance the force of the boy at the cap- 
stan : either they, or he, by a sudden pull, may advance, but 
if they pull fairly, there will be. no advantage on either part. 
In this experiment, the rope should pass through the pulley 



MECHANICS. 301 

P 3, and should be coiled round the larger drum. And it 
must be also observed, that in all experiments upon the mo- 
tion of bodies, in which there is much friction, as where a 
sledge is employed, the results are never so uniform as in oth- 
er circumstances. 

The Pulley. 
Upon the pulley we shall say little, as it is in every body's 
hands, and experiments may be tried upon it without any 
particular apparatus. It should, however be distinctly incul- 
cated, that the power is not increased by a fixed pulley. For 
this purpose, a wheel without a rim, or, to speak with more 
propriety, a number of spokes fixed in a nave, should be em- 
ployed. (Plate 2. Fig. 9.) Pieces like the heads of crutches 
should be fixed at the ends of these spokes, to receive a piece 
of girth-web, which is used instead of a cord, because a cord 
would be unsteady ; and a strap of iron with a hook to it 
should play upon the centre, by which it may at times be 
suspended, and from which at other times a weight may be 
hung. 

EXPERIMENT IX. 

Let the skeleton of a pulley be hung by the iron strap from 
the transom of the frame ; fasten a piece of web to one of the 
radii, and another to the end of the ppposite radius. If two 
boys of equal weight pull these pieces of girth-web, they will 
balance each other; or two equal weights hung to these webs, 
will be in equilibrio. If a piece of girth-web be put round 
the uppermost radius, two equal weights hung at the ends of it 
will remain immoveable ; but if either of them be pulled, or 
if a small additional weight be added to either of them, it will 
descend, and the web will apply itself successively to the as- 
cending radii, and will detach itself from those that are de- 
scending. If this movement be carefully considered, it will 
be perceived, that the web, in unfolding itself, acts in the same 
manner upon the radii as two ropes would if they were hung 
to the extremities of the opposite radii in succession. The 
two radii which are opposite, may be considered as a lever of 
the first sort, where the centre is in the middle of the lever ; 
as each end moves through an equal space, there is no me- 
chanical advantage. But if this skeleton-pulley be employed 
as a common block or tackle, its motions and properties will be 
entirely different. 

EXPERIMENT X. PLATE 2. FIG. 9. 

Nail a piece of girth-web to a post, at the distance of three 
or four feet from the ground ; fasten the other end of it to one 
of the radii. Fasten another piece of web to the opposite ra- 
dius, and let a boy hold the skeleton-pulley suspended by the 
web ; hook weights to the strap that hangs from the centre. 
The end of the radius to which the fixed girth- web is fastened. 



302 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

will remain immoveable ; but, if the boy pulls the web which 
he holds in his hand upwards, he will be able to lift nearly 
double the weight, which he can raise from the ground by a 
simple rope, without the machine, and he will perceive that 
his hand moves through twice as great a space as the weight 
ascends: he has, therefore, the mechanical advantage which 
he would have by a lever of the second sort, as in Experi- 
ment m. Let a piece of web be put round the under radii, 
let one end of it be nailed to the post, and the other be held 
by the hoy, and it will represent the application of a rope to 
a moveable pulley ; if its motion be carefully considered, it 
will appear that the radii, as they successively apply them- 
selves to the web, represent a series of levers of the second 
kind. A pulley is nothing more than an infinite number of 
such levers ; the cord at one end of the diameter serving as a 
fulcrum for the organ during its progress. If this skelelon-pul- 
ley be used horizontally, instead of perpendicularly, the cir- 
cumstances which have been mentioned, will appear more 
obvious. 

Upon the wooden road lay down a piece of girth-web ; nail 
one end of it to the road ; place the pulley upon the web at 
the other end of the board, and., bringing the web over the ra- 
dii, let the boy, taking bold of it, draw the loaded sledge fas- 
tened to the hook at the centre of the pulley : he will draw 
nearly twice as much in this manner as he could without the 
pulley.* 

Here the web lying on the road, shows more distinctly. 
that it is quiescent where the lowest radius touches it ; and ii 
the radii, as they tread upon it, are observed, their points will 
appear at rest, whilst the centre of the pulley will go as fast 
as the sledge, and the top of each radius successively (and the 
boy's hand which unfolds the web) will move twice as fast as 
the centre of the pulley and the sledge. 

If a person holding a stick m his hand, observes the rela- 
tive motions of the top, and the middle, and the bottom of the 
stick, whilst he inclines it, he will see that the bottom of the 
stick has no motion on the ground, and that the middle has 
only half the motion of the top. This property of the pulley 
has been dwelt upon, because it elucidates the motion of a 
wheel rolling upon the ground; and it explains a common 
paradox, which appears at first inexplicable. " The bottom 
of a rolling wheel never moves upon the road." This is asserted 
only of a wheel moving over hard ground, which, in fact may 

* In all these experiments with the skeleton-pulley, somebody must keep it 
in its proper direction ; as from its structure, which is contrived for illustra- 
tion, not for practical use, it cannot retain its proper situation without assist' 
ance. 



MECHANICS. 303 

be considered rather as laying down its circumference upon 
the road, than as moving upon it. 

The inclined Plane and the Wedge. 

The inclined plane is to be next considered. When a heavy 
body is to be raised, it is often convenient to lay a sloping ar- 
tificial road of planks, up which it may be pushed or drawn. 
This mechanical power, however, is but of little service with- 
out the assistance of wheels or rollers ; we shall, therefore, 
speak of it as it is applied in another manner, under the name of 
the wedge, which is, in fact, a moving inclined plane ; but if it is 
required to explain the properties of the inclined plane by the 
panorganon, the wooden road may be raised and set to any in- 
clination that is required, and the sledge may be drawn upon 
it as in the former experiments. 

Let one end of a lever, N. Plate 2. Fig 7. with a wheel at 
one end of it, be hinged to the post of the frame, by means of 
a gudgeon driven or screwed into the post. To prevent this 
lever from deviating sideways, let a slip of wood be connected 
with it by a nail, which shall be fast in the lever, but which 
moves freely in a hole in the rail. The other end of this slip 
must be fastened to a stake driven into the ground at three or 
four feet from the lever, at one side of it, and towards the end 
in which the wheel is fixed (Plate 2. Fig 10. which is a vue 
d^oiseau) in the same manner as the treadle of a common lathe 
is managed, and as the treadle of a loom is sometimes 
guided.* 

EXPERIMENT SI. 

Under the wheel of this lever place an inclined plane or 
half-wedge (Plate 2. Fig. 7.) on the wooden road, with rollers 
under it, to prevent friction ;t fasten a rope to the foremost 
end of the wedge, and pass it through the pulleys (P 4. and P. 
3.) as in the fifth experiment. Let a boy draw the sledge by 
this rope over his shoulder, and he will find, that as it advan- 
ces it will raise the weight upwards ; the wedge is five feet 
long, and elevated one foot. Now, if the perpendicular as- 
cent of the weight, and the space through which he advances, 
be compared, he will find, that the space through which he has 
passed will be five times as great as that through which the 
weight has ascended ; and that this wedge has enabled him 
to raise five times as much as he could raise without it, if his 
strength were applied, as in Experiment i, without any me- 

* In a loom this secondary lever is called a lamb, by mistake, for lam ; 
from lamina, a slip of wood. 

t There should be three rollers used ; one of them must be placed before 
the sledge, under which it will easily find its place, if the bottom of the 
sledge near the foremost end is a little sloped upwards. To retain this fore- 
most roller in its place until the sledge meets it, it should be stuck lightly oiv 
the road with two small bits of wax or pitch, 



304 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

chanical advantage. By making this wedge in two parts hing- 
ed together, with a graduated piece to keep them asunder, the 
wedge may be adjusted to any given obliquity 5 and it will be 
always found, that the mechanical advantage of the wedge 
may be ascertained by comparing its perpendicular elevation 
with its base. If the base of the wedge is 2, 3, 4, 5, or any 
other number of times greater than its height, it will enable 
the boy to raise respectively 2, 3, 4, or 5 times more weight 
than he could do in Experiment 1, by which his power is esti- 
mated. 

The Screw. 

The screw is an inclined plane wound round a cylinder ; 
the height of all its revolutions round the cylinder taken to- 
gether, compared with the space through which the power 
that turns it passes, is the measure of its mechanical advan- 
tage.* Let the lever, used in the last experiment, be turned 
in such a manner as to reach from its gudgeon to the shaft of 
the Panorganon, guided by an attendant lever as before. 
(Plate 2. Fig. 8.) Let the wheel rest upon the lowest helix or 
thread of the screw : as the arms of the shaft are turned 
round, the wheel will ascend, and carry up the weight which 
is fastened to the lever.t As the situation of the screw pre- 
vents the weight from being suspended exactly from the cen- 
tre of the screw, proper allowance must be made for this in 
estimating the force of the screw, or determining the mechan- 
ical advantage gained by the lever: this can be done by 
measuring the perpendicular ascent of the weight, which in 
all cases is better, and more expeditious, than measuring the 
parts of a machine, and estimating its force by calculation ; 
because the different diameters of ropes, and other small cir- 
cumstances, are frequently mistaken in estimates. 

The space passed through by the moving power, and hy 
that which it moves, are infallible data for estimating the pow- 
ers of engines. Two material subjects of experiments yet 
remain for the Panorganon ; friction, and wheels of carriages : 
but we have already extended this article far beyond its just 
proportion to similar chapters in this w r ork. We repeat, that 
it is not intended in this, or in any other part of our design, to 
write treatises upon science ; but merely to point out methods 
for initiating young people in the rudiments of knowledge, 
and of giving them a clear and distinct view of those princi- 

* Mechanical advantage is not a proper term, but our language is deficient 
in proper technical terms. The word poiver is used so indiscriminately, that 
it is scarcely possible to convey our meaning, without employing it more 
strictly. 

t In this experiment, the boy should pull as near as possible to the shaft, 
within a foot of it, for instance, else he will have such mechanical advantage as 
cannot be counterbalanced by any weight which the machine would be. strong 
anouffh to bear. 



CHEMISTRY. 305 

pies upon which they are founded. No preceptor, who has 
had experience, will cavil at the superficial knowledge of a 
boy of twelve or thirteen upon these subjects ; he will per- 
ceive, that the general view, which we wish to give our pu- 
pils of the useful arts and sciences, must certainly tend to form 
a taste for literature and investigation. The sciolist has learn- 
ed only to talk — we wish to teach our pupils to think, upon the 
various objects of human speculation. 

The Panorganon may be employed in trying the resistance 
of air and water ; the force of different muscles ; and in a 
great variety of amusing and useful experiments. In acade- 
mies, and private families, it may be erected in the place al- 
lotted for amusement, where it will furnish entertainment for 
many a vacant hour. When it has lost its novelty, the shaft 
may from time to time be taken down, and a swing may be 
suspended in its place. It may be constructed at the expense 
of five or six pounds : that which stands before our window, 
was made for less than three guineas, as we had many of the 
materials beside us for other purposes. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



CHEMISTRY. 



In the first attempts to teach chemistry to children, objects 
should be selected, the principal properties of which may be 
easily discriminated by the senses of touch, taste or smell ; 
and such terms should be employed as do not require accu- 
rate definition. 

When a child has been caught in a shower of snow, he 
goes to the fire to warm and dry himself. After he has been 
before the fire for some time, instead of becoming dry, he 
finds that he is wetter than he was before : water drops from 
his hat and clothes, and the snow with which he was covered 
disappears. If you ask him what has become of the snow, 
and why he has become wetter, he cannot tell you. Give 
him a tea-cup of snow, desire him to place it before the fire, 
he perceives that the snow melts, that it becomes water. If 
he puts his finger into the water, he finds that it is warmer 
than snow ; he then perceives that the fire which warmed 
him, warmed likewise the snow, which then became water ; 
or, in other words, he discovers that the heat which came 
from the fire goes into the snow and melts it : he thus ac- 
quires the idea of the dissolution of snow by heat. 
39 



306 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

If the cup containing the water, or melted snow, be taken 
from the fire, and put out of the window on a frosty day, he 
perceives, that in time the water grows colder ; that a thin, 
brittle skin spreads over it, which grows thicker by degrees, 
till at length all the water becomes ice ; and if the cup be 
again put before the fire, the ice returns to water. Thus he 
discovers, that by diminishing the heat of water, it becomes 
ice; by adding heat to ice, it becomes water. 

A child watches the drops of melted sealing-wax as they 
fall upon paper. When he sees you stir the wax about, and 
perceives, that what was formerly hard, now becomes soft 
and very hot, he will apply his former knowledge of the ef- 
fects of heat upon ice and snow, and he will tell you that the 
heat of the candle melts the wax. By these means, the prin- 
ciple of the solution of bodies by heat, will be imprinted upon 
his memory ; and you may now enlarge his ideas of solution. 

When a lump of sugar is put into a dish of hot tea, a child 
sees that it becomes less and less, till at last it disappears. 
What has become of the sugar? Your pupil will say that it 
is melted by the heat of the tea : but if it be put into cold tea, 
or cold water, he will find that it dissolves, though more slow- 
ly. You should then show him some fine sand, some clay, 
and chalk, thrown into water ; and he will perceive the dif- 
ference between mechanical mixture and diffusion, or chemi- 
cal mixture. Chemical mixture, as that of sugar in water, 
depends upon the attraction that subsists between the parts of 
the solid and fluid which are combined. Mechanical mixture 
is only the suspension of the parts of a solid in a fluid. W hen 
line sand, chalk, or clay, are put into water, the water con- 
tinues for some time turbid or muddy ; but by degrees the 
sand, &c. falls to the bottom, and the water becomes clear. 
In the chemical mixture of sugar and water, there is no mud- 
dinessj the fluid is clear and transparent, even whilst it is stir- 
red, and when it is at rest, there is no sediment, the sugar is 
joined with the water ; a new, fluid substance, is formed out 
of the two simple bodies sugar and water, and though the 
parts which compose the mixture are not discernible to the 
eye, yet they are perceptible by the taste. 

After he has observed the mixture, the child should be 
asked, whether he knows any method by which he can sep- 
arate the sugar from the water. In the boiling of a kettle of 
water, he has seen the steam which issues from the mouth 
of the vessel ; he knows that the steam is formed by the 
heat from the fire, which joining with the water drives its 
parts further asunder, and makes it take another form, that of 
vapour or steam. He may apply this knowledge to the sepa- 
ration of the sugar and water ; he may turn the water into 



CHEMISTRY. 307 

steam, and the sugar will be left in a vessel in a solid form. 
If, instead of evaporating the water, the boy had added a 
greater quantity of sugar to the mixture, he would have seen, 
that after a certain time, the water would have dissolved no 
more of the sugar ; the superfluous sugar would fall to the 
bottom of the vessel as the sand had done : the pupil should 
then be told that the liquid is saturated with the solid. 

By these simple experiments, a child may acquire a general 
knowledge of solution, evaporation, and saturation, without the 
formality of a lecture, or the apparatus of a chemist. In all 
your attempts to instruct him in chemistry, the greatest care 
should be taken that he should completely understand one ex- 
periment, before you proceed to another. The common met- 
aphorical expression, that the mind should have time to digest 
the food which it receives, is founded upon fact and obser- 
vation. 

Our pupil should see the solution of a variety of substances 
in fluids, as salt in water ; marble, chalk, or alkalies, in acids ; 
and camphire in spirits of wine : this last experiment he may 
try by himself, as it is not dangerous. Certainly many ex- 
periments are dangerous, and therefore unfit for children ; but 
others may be selected, which they may safely try without 
any assistance ; and the dangerous experiments may, when 
they are necessary, be shown to them by some careful per- 
son. Their first experiments should be such as they can 
readily execute, and of which the result may probably be 
successful : this success will please and interest the pupils^ 
and will encourage them to perseverance. 

A child may have some spirit of wine and some camphire 
given to him : the camphire will dissolve in the spirit of wine, 
the spirit is saturated ; but then he will be at a loss how to 
separate them again. To separate them, he must pour into 
the mixture a considerable quantity of water ; he will imme- 
diately see the liquor, which was transparent, become muddy 
and white : this is owing to the separation of the camphire 
from the spirit ; the camphire falls to the bottom of the ves- 
sel in the form of a curd. If the child had weighed the cam- 
phire, both before and after its solution, he would have 
found the result nearly the same. He should be informed, 
that this chemical operation (for technical terms should now 
be used) is called precipitation: the substance that is sepa- 
rated from the mixture by the introduction of another body, 
is cast down, or precipitated from the mixture. In this in- 
stance, the spirit of wine attracted the camphire, and there- 
fore dissolved it. When the water was poured in, the spirit 
of wine attracted the water more strongly than it did the 
camphire 5 the camphire being let loose, fell to the bottom of 
the vessel. 



308 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

The pupil has now been shown two methods, by which a 
solid may be separated from a fluid in which it has been dis- 
solved. 

A still should now be produced, and the pupil should be 
instructed in the nature of distillation. By experiments he 
will learn the difference between the volatility of different bo- 
dies ; or, in other words, he will learn that some are made 
fluid, or are turned into vapour, by a greater or less degr.ee of 
heat than others. The degrees of heat should be shown to 
him by the thermometer, and the use of the thermometer, and 
its nature, should be explained. As the pupil already knows 
that most bodies expand by heat, he will readily understand, 
that an increase of heat extends the mercury in the bulb of 
the thermometer, which, having no other space for its expan- 
sion, rises in the small glass tube ; and that the degree of heat 
to which it is exposed, is marked by the figures on the scale 
of the instrument. 

The business of distillation, is to separate the more volatile 
from the less volatile of two bodies. The whole mixture is 
put into a vessel, under which there is fire : the most volatile 
liquor begins first to turn into vapour, and rises into a 
higher vessel, which, being kept cold by water or snow, con- 
denses the evaporated fluid ; after it has been condensed, it 
drops into another vessel. In the experiment that the child 
has just tried, after having separated the camphire from the 
spirit of wine by precipitation, he may separate the spirit from 
the water by distillation. When the substance that rises, or 
that is separated from other bodies by heat, is a solid, or 
when what is collected after the operation, is solid, the pro- 
cess is not called distillation, but sublimation. 

Our pupil may next be made acquainted with the general 
qualities of acids and alkalies. For instructing him in this 
part of chemistry, definition should as much as possible be 
avoided ; example, and ocular demonstration, should be pur- 
sued. Who would begin to explain by words the difference 
between an acid and an alkali, when these can be shown by 
experiments upon the substances themselves ? The first great 
difference which is perceptible between an acid and an alkali, 
is their taste. Let a child have a distinct perception of the 
difference of their tastes ; let him be able to distinguish them 
when his eyes are shut ; let him taste the strongest of each, 
so as not to hurt him, and when he has once acquired distinct 
notions of the pungent taste of an alkali, and of the sour taste 
of an acid, he will never forget the difference. He must af- 
terwards see the effects of an acid and alkali on the blue 
colour of vegetables at separate times, and not on the same 
day ; by these means he will more easily remember the ex- 
periments, and he will not confound their different results, 



CHEMISTRY. 309 

The blue colour of vegetables is turned red by acids, and 
green by alkalies. Let your pupil take a radish, and scrape 
off the blue part into water ; it should be left for some time, 
until the water becomes of a blue colour : let him pour some 
of this liquor into two glasses ; add vinegar or lemon juice to 
one of them, and the liquor will become red ; dissolve some 
alkali in water, and pour this into the other glass, and the 
dissolved radish will become green. If into the red mixture 
alkali be poured, the colour will change into green ; and if 
into the liquor which was made green, acid be poured, the 
colour will change to red : thus alternately you may pour 
acid or alkali, and produce a red or green colour successive- 
ly. Paper stained with the blue colour of vegetables, is call- 
ed test paper ; this is changed by the least powerful of the 
acids or alkalies, and will, therefore, be peculiarly useful in 
the first experiments of our young pupils. A child should for 
safety use the weakest acids in his first trials, but he should 
be shown that the effects are similar, whatever acids we em- 
ploy ; only the colour will be darker when we make use of 
the strong, than when we use the weak acids. By degrees 
the pupil should be accustomed to employ the strong acids ; 
such as the vitriolic, the nitric, and the muriatic, which three 
are called fossil acids, to distinguish them from the vegetable, 
or weaker acids. We may be permitted to advise the young 
chemist to acquire the habit of wiping the neck of the vessel 
out of which he pours any strong acid, as the drops of the 
liquor will not then burn his hand when he takes hold of the 
bottle; nor will they injure the table upon which he is at 
work. This custom, trivial as it may seem, is of advantage, 
as it gives an appearance of order, and of ease, and steadi- 
ness, which are all necessary in trying chemical experiments. 
The little pupil may be told, that the custom which we have 
just mentioned, is the constant practice of the great chemist. 
Dr. Black. 

We should take care how we first use the term salt in 
speaking to children, lest they should acquire indistinct ideas : 
he should be told, that the kind of salt which he eats is not 
the only salt in the world ; he may be put in mind of the 
kind of salts which he has, perhaps, smelt in smelling-bottles ; 
and he should be further told, that there are a number of 
earthy, alkaline, and metallic salts, with which he will in time 
become acquainted. 

When an acid is put upon an alkali, or upon limestone, 
chalk, or marie, a bubbling may be observed, and a noise is 
heard ; a child should be told, that this is called effervescence. 
After some time the effervescence ceases, and the limestone, 
&c. is dissolved in the acid. This effervescence, the child 
should be informed, arises from the escape of a considerable 



310 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

quantity of a particular sort of air, called fixed air, or carbonic 
acid gas. In the solution of the lime in the acid, the lime and 
acid have an attraction for one another ; but as the present 
mixture has no attraction for the gas, it escapes, and in rising, 
forms the bubbling or effervescence. This may be proved 
to a child, by showing him, that if an acid is poured upon 
caustic lime (lime which has had this gas taken from it by 
fire) there will be no effervescence. 

There are various other chemical experiments with which 
children may amuse themselves ; they may be employed in 
analyzing marie, or clays; they may be provided with mate- 
rials for making ink or soap. It should be pointed out to 
them, that the common domestic and culinary operations of 
making butter and cheese, baking, brewing, &c. are all che- 
mical processes. We hope the reader will not imagine, that 
we have in this slight sketch pretended to point out the best 
experiments which can be devised for children ; we have on- 
ly offered a few of the simplest which occurred to us, that 
parents may not, at the conclusion of this chapter, exclaim, 
" What is to be done ? How are we to begin ? What experi- 
ments are suited to children ? If we knew, our children should 
try them." 

It is of little consequence what particular experiment is 
selected for the first ; we only wish to show, that the minds 
of children may be turned to this subject ; and that, by ac- 
customing them to observation, we give them not only the 
power of learning what has been already discovered, but of 
adding, as they grow older, something to the general stock of 
human knowledge. 



CHAPTER Xlt: 



ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 

The anxious parent, after what has been said concerning 
tasks and classical literature, will inquire whether the whole 
plan of education recommended in the following pages, is in- 
tended to relate to public or to private education. It is in- 
tended to relate to both. It is not usual to send children to 
school before they are eight or nine years old : our first ob- 
ject is to show how education may be conducted to that age 
in such a manner, that children may be well prepared for the 
acquisition of all the knowledge usually taught at schools, 
and may be perfectly free from many of the faults that pupils 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 311 

sometimes have acquired before they are sent to any public 
seminary. It is obvious, that public preceptors would be 
saved much useless labour and anxiety, were parents to take 
some pains in the previous instruction of their children ; and 
more especially, if they were to prevent them from learning 
a taste for total idleness, or habits of obstinacy and of false- 
hood, which can scarcely be conquered by the utmost care 
and vigilance. We can assure parents, from experience, 
that if they pursue steadily a proper plan with regard to the 
understanding and the moral habits, they will not have much 
trouble with the education of their children after the age we 
have mentioned, as long as they continue to instruct them at 
home 5 and if they send them to public schools, their supe- 
riority in intellect and in conduct will quickly appear. 
Though we have been principally attentive to all the circum- 
stances which can be essential to the management of young 
people during the first nine or ten years of their lives, we 
have by no means confined our observations to this period 
alone ; but we have endeavoured to lay before parents a gen- 
eral view of the human mind (as far as it relates to our sub- 
ject) of proper methods of teaching, and of the objects of ra- 
tional instruction — so that they may extend the principles 
which we have laid down, through all the succeeding periods 
of education, and may apply them as it may best suit their 
peculiar situations, or their peculiar wishes. We are fully 
conscious, that we have executed but very imperfectly even 
our own design ; that experimental education is yet but in its 
infancy, and that boundless space for improvement remains ; 
but we flatter ourselves, that attentive parents and preceptors 
will consider with candour the practical assistance which is 
offered to them, especially as we have endeavoured to ex- 
press our opinions without dogmatical presumption, and with- 
out the illiberal exclusion of any existing institutions or pre- 
vailing systems. People who, even with the best intentions, 
attack with violence any of these, and who do not consider 
what is practicable, as well as what ought to be done, are not 
likely to persuade, or to convince mankind to increase the 
general sum of happiness, or their own portion of felicity. 
Those who really desire to be of service to society, should 
point out decidedly, but with temperate indulgence for the 
feelings and opinions of others, whatever appears to them ab- 
surd or reprehensible in any prevailing customs : having done 
this, they will rest in the persuasion that what is most rea- 
sonable, will ultimately prevail. 

Mankind, at least the prudent and rational part of mankind, 
have an aversion to pull down, till they have a moral certain- 
ty that they can build up a better edifice than that which has 
been destroyed. Would you, says an eminent writer, con- 



312 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

vince me, that the house I live in is a bad one, .and would 
you persuade me to quit it ; build a better in my neighbour- 
hood ; I shall be very ready to go into it, and shall return 
you my very sincere thanks. Till another house be ready, a 
wise man will stay in his old one, however inconvenient its 
arrangement, however seducing the plans of the enthusiastic 
projector. We do not set up for projectors, or reformers : 
we wish to keep steadily in view the actual state of things, as 
well as our own hopes of progressive improvement; and to 
seize and combine all that can be immediately serviceable : 
all that can assist, without precipitating improvements. Eve- 
ry well informed parent, and every liberal school-master, 
must be sensible that there are many circumstances in the 
management of public education which might be condemned 
with reason ; that too much time is sacrificed to the study 
of the learned languages; that too little attention is paid 
to the general improvement of the understanding and forma- 
tion of the moral character ; that a school-master cannot pay 
attention to the temper or habits of each of his numerous schol- 
ars ; and that parents, during that portion of the year which 
their children spend with them, are not sufficiently solicitous 
to co-operate with the views of the school-master; so that the 
public is counteracted by the private education. These, and 
many other things, we have heard objected to schools ; but 
what are we to put in the place of schools ? How are vast 
numbers who are occupied themselves in public or profes- 
sional pursuits, how are men in business or in trade, artists or 
manufacturers, to educate their families, when they have not 
time to attend to them ; when they may not think themselves 
perfectly prepared to undertake the classical instruction and 
entire education of several boys ; and when, perhaps, they 
may not be in circumstances to engage the assistance of such 
a preceptor as they could approve? It is obvious, that if in 
such situations parents were to attempt to educate their chil- 
dren at home, they would harass themselves, and probably 
spoil their pupils irrecoverably. It would, therefore, be in 
every respect impolitic and cruel to disgust those with public 
schools, who have no other resource for the education of their 
families. There is another reason which has perhaps opera- 
ted upon many in the middle ranks of life unperceived, and 
which determines them in favour of public education. Per- 
sons of narrow fortune, or persons who have acquired wealth 
in business, are often desirous of breeding up their sons to the 
liberal professions : and they are conscious that the company, 
the language, and the style of life, which their children would 
be accustomed to at home, are beneath what would be suited 
to their future professions. Public schools efface this rustici- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 313 

ty, aid correct the faults of provincial dialect : in this point 
of view they are highly advantageous. We strongly recom- 
mend it to such parents to send their children to large public 
schools, to Rugby, Eton, or Westminster 5 not to any small 
school; much less to one in their own neighbourhood. 
Small schools are apt to be filled with persons of nearly the 
same stations, and out of the same neighbourhood : from this 
circumstance, they contribute to perpetuate uncouth antiqua- 
ted idioms, and many of those obscure prejudices which cloud 
the intellect in the future business of life. 

Whilst we admit the necessity which compels the largest 
portion of society to prefer public seminaries of education, it is 
incumbent upon us to caution parents from expecting that the 
moral character, the understandings, or the tempers of their 
children, should be improved at large schools ; there the 
learned languages, we acknowledge, are successfully taught. 
Many satisfy themselves with the assertion, that public edu- 
cation is the least troublesome, that a boy once sent to school 
is settled for several years of life, and will require only short 
returns of parental care twice a year at the holydays. It is 
hardly to be supposed, that those who think in this man- 
ner, should have paid any anxious, or at least any ju- 
dicious attention to the education of their children, pre- 
viously to sending them to school. It is not likely that they 
should be very solicitous about the commencement of an edu- 
cation which they never meant to finish : they would think, 
that what could be done during the first few years of life, is 
of little consequence ; that children from four to seven years 
old are too young to be taught; and that a school would 
speedily supply all deficiencies, and correct all those faults 
which begin at that age to be troublesome at home. Thus to 
a public school, as to a general infirmary for mental disease, 
all desperate subjects are sent, as the last resource. They 
take with them the contagion of their vices, which quickly 
runs through the whole tribe of their companions, especially 
amongst those who happen to be nearly of their own age, 
whose sympathy peculiarly exposes them to the danger of in- 
fection. We are often told, that as young people have the 
strongest sympathy with each other, they will learn most ef- 
fectually from each other's example. They do learn quickly 
from example, and this is one of the dangers of a public 
school : a danger which is not necessary, but incidental ; a 
danger against which no school-master can possibly guard, 
but which parents can, by the previous education of the pu- 
pils, prevent. Boys are led, driven, or carried to school ; and 
in a school-room they first meet with those who are to be their 
fellow-prisoners. They do not come with fresh unprejudiced 
40 



314 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

minds to commence their course of social education ; they 
bring with them all the ideas and habits which they have al- 
ready learned at their respective homes. It is highly unrea- 
sonable to expect, that all these habits should be reformed by 
a public preceptor. If he had patience, how could he have 
time for such an undertaking? Those who have never at- 
tempted to break a pupil of any one bad habit, have no idea 
of the degree of patience requisite to success. We once heard 
an officer of dragoons assert, that he would rather break twen- 
ty horses of their bad habits, than one man of his. The 
proportionate difficulty of teaching boys, may be easily cal- 
culated. 

• It is sometimes asserted, that the novelty of a school life, 
the change of situation, alters the habits, and forms in boys a 
new character. Habits of eight or nine years standing, can- 
not be instantaneously, perhaps can never be radically de- 
stroyed ; they will mix themselves imperceptibly with the 
new ideas which are planted in their minds, and though these 
may strike the eye by the rapidity of their growth, the oth- 
ers, which have taken a strong root, will not easily be dispos- 
sessed of the soil. In this new character, as it is called, there 
will, to a discerning eye, appear a strong mixture of the old 
disposition. The boy, who at home lived with his father's 
servants, and was never taught to have any species of litera- 
ture, will not acquire a taste for it at school, merely by being 
compelled to learn his lessons : the boy, who at home was 
suffered to be the little tyrant of a family, will, it is true, be 
forced to submit to superior strength or superior numbers at 
school;* but does it improve the temper to practise alternate- 
ly the habits of a tyrant and a slave ? The lesson which 
experience usually teaches to the temper of a school-boy, is, 
that strength, and power, and cunning, will inevitably govern 
in society : as to reason, it is out of the question, it would be 
hissed or laughed out of the company. With respect to social 
virtues, they are commonly amongst school-boys so much mix- 
ed with party spirit, that they mislead even the best disposi- 
tions. A boy at home, whose pleasures are all immediately 
connected with the idea of self, will not feel a sudden en- 
largement of mind from entering a public school. He will, 
probably, preserve his selfish character in his new society ; 
or, even suppose he catches that of his companions, the pro- 
gress is not great in moral education from selfishness to spirit 
of party : the one is a despicable, the other a dangerous^ 
principle of action. It has been observed, that what we are 
when we are twenty, depends on what we were when we were 

V. Barnc's Essay on public and private education. Manchester Society. 



PUB1IC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 315 

ten years old. What a young man is at college, depends up- 
on what he was at school ; and what he is at school, depends 
upon what he was before he went to school. In his father's 
house, the first important lessons, those which decide his fu- 
ture abilities and character, must be learned. We have re- 
peated this idea, and placed it in different points of view, in 
hopes that it will catch and fix the attention. Suppose that 
parents educated their children well for the first eight or nine 
years of their lives, and then sent them all to public semina- 
ries, what a difference this must immediately make in public 
education : the boys would be disposed to improve themselves 
with all the ardour which the most sanguine preceptor would 
desire ; their tutors would find that there was nothing to be 
unlearned ; no habits of idleness to conquer ; no perverse 
stupidity would provoke them; no capricious contempt of ap- 
plication would appear in pupils of the quickest abilities. 
The moral education could then be made a part of the pre- 
ceptor's care, with some hopes of success ; the pupils would 
all have learned the first necessary moral principles and hab- 
its ; they would, consequently, be all fit companions for each 
other ; in each other's society they would continue to be gov- 
erned by the same ideas of right and wrong by which they 
had been governed all their lives ; they would not have any 
new character to learn ; they would improve, by mixing with 
numbers, in the social virtues, without learning party spirit; 
and though they would love their companions, they would 
not, therefore, combine together to treat their instructers as 
pedagogues and tyrants. This may be thought an Utopian 
idea of a school ; indeed it is very improbable, that out of 
the numbers of parents who send their children to large 
schools, many should suddenly be much moved, by any 
thing that we can say, to persuade them to take serious trou- 
ble in their previous instruction. But much may be effected 
by gradual attempts. Ten well educated boys, sent to a pub- 
lic seminary at nine or ten years old, would, probably, far sur- 
pass their competitors in every respect ; the} 7 would inspire 
others with so much emulation, would do their parents and 
preceptors so much credit, that numbers would eagerly inquire 
into the causes of their superiority ; and these boys would, 
perhaps, do more good by their example, than by their actu- 
al acquirements. We do not mean to promise, that a boy ju- 
diciously educated, shall appear at ten years old a prodigy 
of learning ; far from it : we should not even estimate his ca- 
pacity, or the chain of his future progress, by the quantity of 
knowledge stored in his memory, by the number of Latin 
lines he had got by rote, by his expertness in repeating the 
rules of his grammar, by his pointing out a number of places 
readily in a map, or even by his knowing the latitude and 



316 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

longitude of all the capital cities in Europe ; these are all use- 
ful articles of knowledge ; but thej are not the test of a good 
education. We should rather, if we were to examine a boy 
of ten years old, for the credit of his parents, produce proofs 
of his being able to reason accurately, of his quickness in in- 
vention, of his habits of industry and application, of his having 
learned to generalize his ideas, and to apply his observations 
and his principles : if we found that he had learned all, or any 
of these things, we should be in little pain about grammar, or 
geography, or even Latin; we should be tolerably certain that 
he would not long remain deficient in any of these ; we should 
know that he would overtake and surpass a competitor who had 
only been technically taught, as certainly as that the giant 
would overtake the panting dwarf, who might have many miles 
the start of him in the race. We do not mean to say, that 
a boy should not be taught the principles of grammar, and 
some knowledge of geography, at the same time that his un- 
derstanding is cultivated in the most enlarged manner : these 
objects are not incompatible, and we particularly recommend 
it to parents who intend to send their children to school, early 
to give them confidence in themselves, by securing the rudi- 
ments of literary education ; otherwise their pupils, with a 
real superiority of understanding, ma3 r feel depressed, and 
may, perhaps, be despised, when they mix at a public school 
with numbers who will estimate their abilities merely by their 
proficiency in particular studies. 

Mr. Frend,* in recommending the study of arithmetic for 
young people, has very sensibly remarked, that boys 
bred up in public schools, are apt to compare themselves with 
each other merely as classical scholars ; and, when they af- 
terwards go into the world excellent Greek and Latin scholars, 
are much astonished to perceive, that many of the compan- 
ions whom they had under-valued at school, get before them 
when they come to actual business, and to active life. Many, 
in the pursuit of their classical studies, have neglected all other 
knowledge, especially that of arithmetic, that useful, essential 
branch of knowledge, without which neither the abstract 
sciences nor practical arts can be taught. The precision 
which the habit of applying the common rules of arithmetic 
gives to the understanding, is highly advantageous, particu- 
larly to young people of vivacity, or, as others would say, of 
genius. The influence which the habit of estimating has 
upon that part of the moral character called prudence, is of 
material consequence. We shall further explain upon this 



* V. Mr. Fiend's Principles of Algebra. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 31? 

subject when we speak of the means of teaching arithmetic 
and reasoning to children ; we only mention the general ideas 
here, to induce intelligent parents to attend early to these par- 
ticulars. If they mean to send their children to public clas- 
sical schools, it must be peculiarly advantageous to teach them 
early the rudiments of arithmetic, and to give them the habit 
of applying their knowledge in the common business of life. 
We forbear to enumerate other useful things, which might 
easily be taught to young people before they leave home, 
because we do not wish to terrify with the apprehension, that 
a perplexing variety of things are to be taught. One thing 
well taught, is better than a hundred taught imperfectly. 

The effect of the pains which are taken in the first nine or 
ten years of a child's life, may not be apparent immediately 
to the view, but it will gradually become visible. To care- 
less observers, two boys of nine years old, who have been 
very differently educated, may appear nearly alike in abili- 
ties, in temper, and in the promise of future character. Send 
them both to a large public school, let them be placed in the 
same new situation, and exposed to the same trials, the differ- 
ence will then appear: the difference in a few years will be 
such as to strike every eye, and people will wonder what can 
have produced in so short a time such an amazing change. 
In the Hindoo art of dyeing, the same liquors communicate 
different colours to particular spots, according to the several 
bases previously applied : to the ignorant eye, no difference 
is discernible in the ground, nor can the design be distinctly 
traced till the air, and light, and open exposure, bring out the 
bright and permanent colours to the wondering eye of the 
spectator. 

Besides bestowing some attention upon early education, par- 
ents, w T ho send their children to school, may much assist the 
public preceptor by judicious conduct towards children during 
that portion of the year which is usually spent at home.* Mis- 
taken parental fondness delights to make the period of time, 
which children spend at home, as striking a contrast as possible 
with that which they pass at school. The holydays are made 
a jubilee, or rather resemble the Saturnalia. Even if parents do 
not wish to represent a school-master as a tyrant, they are by no 
means displeased to observe, that he is not the friend or 
favourite of their children. They put themselves in mean 
competition with him for their affection, instead of co-opera- 
ting with him in all his views for their advantage. How 
is it possible, that any master can long retain the wish or the 
hope of succeeding in any plan of education, if he perceives 



V. Williams's Lectures on Education. 



318 I'RACTICAL EDUCATION. 

that his pupils are but partially under his government; if 
his influence over their minds be counteracted from time to 
time by the superior influence of their parents? An influ- 
ence which he must not wish to destroy. To him is left the 
power to punish, it is true; but parents reserve to them- 
selves the privilege to reward. The ancients did not suppose 
that even Jupiter could govern the world without the com- 
mand of pain and pleasure. Upon the vases near his throne, 
depended his influence over mankind. 

And what are these holyday delights? And in what con- 
sists paternal rewards ? In dissipation and idleness. With 
these are consequently associated the idea of happiness and 
the name of pleasure; the name is often sufficient, without the 
reality. During the vacation, children have a glimpse of 
what is called the world ; and then are sent back to their 
prison with heads full of visions of liberty, and with a second- 
sight of the blessed lives which they are to lead when they 
have left school for ever. What man of sense, who has stud- 
ied the human mind, who knows that the success of any plan 
of education must depend upon the concurrence of every per- 
son, and every circumstance, for years together, to the same 
point, would undertake any thing more than the partial in- 
struction of pupils, whose leading associations and habits must 
be perpetually broken? When the work of school is undone 
during the holydays, what hand could have the patience per- 
petually to repair the web ? 

During the vacations spent at home, children may be made 
extremely happy in the society and in the affections of their 
friends, but they need not be taught, that idleness is pleasure: 
on the contrary, occupation should, by all possible methods, 
be rendered agreeable to them ; their school acquisitions, 
their knowledge and taste, should be drawn out in conversation, 
and they should be made to feel the value of what they have 
been taught; by these means, there would be some connex- 
ion, some unity of design, preserved in their education. 
Their schoolmasters and tutors should never become the theme 
of insipid ridicule ; nor should parents ever put their influence 
in competition with that of a preceptor : on the contrary, his 
pupils should uniformly perceive, that from his authority there 
is no appeal, except to the superior power of reason, which 
should be the avowed arbiter to which all should be submit- 
ted. 

Some of the dangerous effects of that mixed society at 
schools, of which we have complained, may be counteracted 
by the judicious conduct of parents during the time which 
children spend at home. A better view of society, more en- 
larged ideas of friendship and of justice, may be given to 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 319 

young people, and the vile principle of party spirit may be 
treated with just contempt and ridicule. Some standard, 
some rules may be taught to them, by which they may judge 
of character independently of prejudice, or childish preposses- 
sion. 

" I do not like you, Doctor Fell ; 
The reason why, I canuot tell : 
But this I know full well, 
I do not like you, Doctor Fell" — 

is an exact specimen of the usual mode of reasoning, of the 
usual method in which an ill educated school-boy expresses 
his opinion and feelings about all persons, and all things. 
" The reason why," should always be inquired whenever 
children express preference or aversion. 

To connect the idea of childhood with that of inferiority 
and contempt, is unjust and impolitic; it should not be made 
a reproach to young people to be young, nor should it be 
pointed out to them, that when they are some years older, 
they will be more respected; the degree of respect which 
they really command, whether in youth or age, will depend 
upon their own conduct, their knowledge, and their powers of 
being useful and agreeable to others. If they are convinced 
of this, children will not at eight years old long to be fifteen, 
or at fifteen to be one and twenty ; proper subordination 
would be preserved, and the scale of happiness would not 
have a forced and false connexion with that of age. If par- 
ents did not first excite foolish wishes in the minds of their 
children, and then imprudently promise that these wishes 
shall be gratified at certain periods of their existence, children 
would not be impatient t© pass over the years of childhood; 
those years which idle boys wish to pass over as quickly as 
possible, men without occupation regret as the happiest of 
their existence. To a child, who has been promised that he 
shall put on manly apparel on his next birth-day, the pace of 
time is slow and heavy until that happy era arrive. Fix 
the day when a boy shall leave school, and he wishes instant- 
ly to mount the chariot, and lash the horses of the sun. Nor 
when he enters the world, will his restless spirit be satisfied ; 
the first step gained, he looks anxiously forward to the height 
of manly elevation, 

" And the brisk minor pants for twenty-one." . 

These juvenile anticipations diminish the real happiness of 
life ; those who are in continual expectation, never enjoy the 
present ; the habit of expectation is dangerous to the mind, it 
suspends all industry, all voluntary exertion. Young men, 
who early acquire this habit, find existence insipid to them 



320 PRACTICAL. EDUCATION. 

■without the immediate stimuli of hope and fear : no matter 
what the object is, they must have something to sigh for 5 a 
curricle, a cockade, or an opera-dancer. 

Much may be done by education to prevent this boyish 
restlessness. Parents should refrain from those imprudent 
promises, and slight inuendoes, which the youthful imagina- 
tion always misunderstands and exaggerates. — Never let the 
moment in which a young man quits a seminary of education, 
be represented as a moment in which all instruction, labour, 
and restraints cease. The idea, that he must restrain and in- 
struct himself, that he must complete his own education, should 
be excited in a young man's mind ; nor should he be suffered 
to imagine that his education is finished, because he has at- 
tained to some given age. 

When a common school-boy bids adieu to that school which 
he has been taught to consider as a prison, he exults in his 
escape from books and masters, and from all the moral and 
intellectual discipline, to which he imagines that it is the pe- 
culiar disgrace and misery of childhood to be condemned. 
He is impatient to be thought a man, but his ideas of the man- 
ly character are erroneous, consequently his ambition will 
only mislead him. From his companions whilst at school, 
from his father's acquaintance, and his father's servants, with 
whom he has been suffered to consort during the vacations, he 
has collected imperfect notions of life, fashion, and society. 
These do not mix well in his mind with the examples and pre- 
cepts of Greek and Roman virtue : a temporary enthusiasm 
may have been kindled in his soul by the eloquence of anti- 
quity ; but, for want of sympathy, this enthusiasm necessarily 
dies away. His heroes are not the heroes of the present 
times ; the maxims of his sages are not easily introduced into 
the conversation of the day. At the tea-table he now seldom 
hears even the name of Plato ; and he often blushes for not 
knowing a line from a popular English poet, whilst he could 
repeat a cento from Horace, Virgil, and Homer; or an 
antistrophe from iEschylus or Euripides. He feels ashamed 
to produce the knowledge he has acquired, because he has 
not learned sufficient address to produce it without pedantry. 
On his entrance into the world, there remains in his mind no 
grateful, no affectionate, no respectful remembrance of those 
under whose care he has passed so many years of his life. He 
has escaped from the restraints imposed by his school-master, 
and the connexion is dissolved for ever. 

But when a son separates from his father, if he has been 
well educated, he wishes to continue his own education : the 
course of his ideas is not suddenly broken ; what he has been, 
joins immediately with what he is to be ; his knowledge ap- 
plies to real life, it is such as he can use in all companies ; there 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION. 321 

is no sudden metamorphosis in any of the objects of his ambi- 
tion ; the boy and man are the same individual. Pleasure 
will not influence him merely by her name, or by the contrast 
of her appearance with the rigid discipline of scholastic learn- 
ing ; he will feel the difference between pleasure and happi- 
ness, and his early taste for domestic life will remain or re- 
turn upon his mind. His old precepts and new motives are 
not at war with each other; his experience will confirm his 
education, and external circumstances will call forth his la- 
tent virtues. When he looks back, he can trace the gradual 
growth of his knowledge ; when he looks forward, it is with 
the delightful hope of progressive improvement. A desire in 
some degree to repay the care, to deserve the esteem, to fulfil 
the animating prophecies, or to justify the fond hopes of the par 
rent Avho has watched over his education, is one of the strong- 
est motives to an ingenuous young man : it is an incentive to 
exertion in every honourable pursuit. A son who has been 
judiciously and kindly educated, will feel the value of his fa- 
ther's friendship. The perception, that no man can be more 
entirely interested in every thing that concerns him, the idea, 
that no one more than his father can share in his glory or in 
his disgrace, will press upon his heart, will rest upon his un- 
derstanding. Upon these ideas, upon this common family in- 
terest, the real strength of the connexion between a father 
and his son depends. No public preceptor can have the same 
advantages; his connexion with his pupil is not necessarily 
formed to last. 

After having spoken with freedom, but we hope with mod- 
eration, of public schools, we may, perhaps, be asked our 
opinion of universities. Are universities the most splendid 
repositories of learning 1 We are not afraid to declare an 
opinion in the negative. Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, has 
stated some objections to them, we think, with unanswerable 
force of reasoning. We do not, however, wish to destroy 
what we do not entirely approve. Far be that insanity from 
our minds which would, like Orlando, tear up the academic 
groves ; the madness of innovation is as destructive as the 
bigotry of ancient establishments. The learning and the 
views of the rising century must have different objects from 
those of the wisdom and benevolence of Alfred, Balsham, or 
Wolsey ; and, without depreciating or destroying the magnifi- 
cence or establishments of universities, may not their institu- 
tions be improved ? May not their splendid halls echo with 
other sounds than the exploded metaphysics of the schools ? 
And may not other learning be as much rewarded and esteem- 
ed as pure latinity ? 

We must here distinctly point out, that young men design- 
ed for the army or the navy, should not be educated in pri- 
41 



322 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

vate families. The domestic habits, the learned leisure of 
private education, are unsuited to them ; it would be absurd 
to waste many years in teaching them the elegances of clas- 
sic literature, which can probably be of no essential use to 
them ; it would be cruel to give them a nice and refined 
choice of right and wrong, when it will be their professional 
duty to act under the command of others ; when implicit, 
prompt, unquestioning obedience must be their first military 
virtue. Military academies, where the sciences practically 
essential to the professions are taught, must be the best situa- 
tions for all young sailors and soldiers ; strict institutioa 
is the best education for them. We do not here inquire how 
far these professions are necessary in society ; it is obvious, 
that in the present state of European cultivation, soldiers and 
sailors are indispensable to every nation. We hope, howev- 
er, that a taste for peace may, at some future period in the 
history of the world, succeed to the passion for military glory, 
and in the mean time, we may safely recommend it to parents, 
never to trust a young man designed for a soldier, to the care 
of a philosopher, even if it were possible to find one who 
would undertake the charge. 

We hope that we have shown ourselves the friends of the 
public preceptor, that we have pointed out the practicable, 
means of improving public institutions, by parental care and 
parental co-operation. But, until such a meliorating plan 
shall actually have been carried into effect, we cannot hesi- 
tate to assert, that even when the abilities of the parent are 
inferior to those of the public preceptor, the means of ensur- 
ing success preponderate in favour of private education. A 
father, who has time, talents, and temper, to educate his fami- 
ly, is certainly the best possible preceptor; and his reward 
will be the highest degree of domestic felicity. If, from his 
situation, he is obliged to forego this reward, he may select 
some man of literature, sense, and integrity, to whom he can 
confide his children. Opulent families should not think any 
reward too munificent for such a private preceptor. Even in 
an economic point of view, it is prudent to calculate how ma- 
ny thousands lavished on the turf, or lost at the gaming table, 
might have been saved to the heirs of noble and wealthy fami- 
lies by a judicious education. 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 323 



CHAPTER XX. 

ON FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, MASTERS, AND GOVER- 
NESSES. 

Some years ago, an opera dancer at Lyons, whose charms 
were upon the wane, applied to an English gentleman for a 
recommendation to some of his friends in England, as a gov- 
erness for young ladies. "Do you doubt," said the lady (ob- 
serving that the gentleman was somewhat confounded by the 
easy assurance of her request) " do you doubt my capability ? 
Do I not speak good Parisian French ? Have I any provin- 
cial accent? I will undertake to teach the language gram- 
matically. And for music and dancing, without vanity, may 
I not pretend to teach them to any young person ?" The la- 
dy's excellence in all these particulars was unquestionable. 
She was beyond dispute a highly accomplished woman. 
Pressed by her forcible interrogatories, the gentleman was 
compelled to hint, that an English mother of a family might 
be inconveniently inquisitive about the private history of a 
person who was to educate her daughters. " Oh," said the 
lady, " I can change my name ; and, at my age, nobody will 
make further inquiries." 

Before we can determine how far this lady's pretensions 
were ill founded, and before we can exactly decide what 
qualifications are most desirable in a governess, we must form 
some estimate of the positive and relative value of what are 
called accomplishments. 

We are not going to attack any of them with cynical as- 
perity, or with the ambition to establish any new dogmatical 
tenets in the place of old received opinions. It can, however, 
do no harm to discuss this important subject with proper rev- 
erence and humility. Without alarming those mothers, who 
declare themselves above all things anxious for the rapid pro- 
gress of their daughters in every fashionable accomplishment, 
it may be innocently asked, what price such mothers are wil- 
ling to pay for these advantages. Any price within the limits- 
of our fortune ! they will probably exclaim. 

There are other standards by which we can measure the 
value of objects, as well as by money. " Fond mother, would 
you, if it were in your power, accept of an opera dancer for 
your daughter's governess, upon condition that you should 



324 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

live to see that daughter dance the best minuet at a birth- 
night ball ?" 

" Not for the world," replies the mother. " Do you think 
I would hazard my daughter's innocence and reputation, for 
the sake of seeing her dance a good minuet ? Shocking ! 
Absurd ! What can you mean by such an outrageous 
question ?" 

" To fix your attention. Where the mind has not precisely 
ascertained its wishes, it is sometimes useful to consider ex- 
tremes ; by determining what price you will not pay, we shall 
at length ascertain the value which you set upon the object. 
Reputation and innocence, you say, you will not, upon any 
account, hazard. But would you consent that your daughter 
should, by universal acclamation, be proclaimed the most ac- 
complished woman in Europe, upon the simple condition, that 
she should pass her days in a nunnery ?" 

" I should have no right to make such a condition ; domes- 
tic happiness I ought certainly to prefer to public admiration 
for my daughter. Her accomplishments would be of little 
use to her, if she were to be shut up from the world : who is 
to be the judge of them in a nunnery ?" 

" I will say no more about the nunnery. But would not 
you, as a good mother, consent to have your daughter turned 
into an automaton for eight hours in every day for fifteen 
years, for the promise of hearing her, at the end of that time, 
pronounced the first private performer at the most fashionable 
and most crowded concert in London ?'•' 

" Eight hours a day for fifteen years, are too much. No 
one need practise so much to become the first performer in 
England." 

" That is another question. You have not told me whether 
you would sacrifice so much of your daughter's existence for 
such an object, supposing that you could obtain it at no other 
price." 

" For one concert ?" says the hesitating mother ; " I think 
it would be too high a price. Yet I would give any thing to 
have my daughter play better than any one in England. 
What a distinction ! She would be immediately taken notice 
of in all companies! She might get into the first circles in 
London! She would want neither beauty nor fortune to re- 
commend her ! She would be a match for any man, who has 
any taste for music ! And music is universally admired, even 
by those who have the misfortune to have no taste for it. 
Besides, it is such an elegant accomplishment in itself! Such 
a constant source of innocent amusement ! Putting every thing 
else out of the question, I should wish my daughter to have 
every possible accomplishment, because accomplishments are 
such charming resources for young women ; they keep them 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 325 

out of harm's way ; they make a vast deal of their idle time^ 
pass so pleasantly to themselves and others ; this is my chief 
reason for liking them." 

Here are so many reasons brought together at once, along 
with the chief reason, that they are altogether unanswerable ; 
we must separate, class, and consider them one at a time. 
Accomplishments, it seems, are valuable, as being the objects 
of universal admiration. Some accomplishments have another 
species of value, as they are tickets of admission to fashiona- 
ble company. Accomplishments have another, and a higher 
species of value, as they are supposed to increase a young la- 
dy's chance of a prize in the matrimonial lottery. Accomplish- 
ments have also a value as resources against ennui, as they af- 
ford continual amusement and innocent occupation. This is os- 
tensibly their chief praise ; it deserves to be considered with 
respect. False and odious must be that philosophy which 
would destroy any one of the innocent pleasures of our ex- 
istence. No reward was thought too high for the invention of 
a new pleasure ; no punishment would be thought too severe 
for those who would destroy an old one. Women are pecu- 
liarly restrained in their situation, and in their employments, 
by the customs of society : to diminish the number of these 
employments, therefore, would be cruel ; they should rather 
be encouraged, by all means, to cultivate those tastes which 
can attach them to their home, and which can preserve them 
from the miseries of dissipation. Every sedentary occupa- 
tion must be valuable to those who are to lead sedentary 
lives ; and every art, however trifling in itself, which tends to 
enliven and embellish domestic life, must be advantageous, not 
only to the female sex, but to society in general. As far as 
accomplishments can contribute to all or any of these excel- 
lent purposes, they must be just objects of attention in early 
education. 

A number of experiments have already been tried ; let us 
examine the result. Out of the prodigious number of young 
women who learn music and drawing, for instance, how many 
are there, who, after they become mistresses of their own 
time, and after they have the choice of their own amuse- 
ments, continue to practise these accomplishments for the 
pure pleasure of occupation ? As soon as a young lady is 
married, does she not frequently discover, that " she really 
has not leisure to cultivate talents which take up so much 
time ?" Does she not complain of the labour of practising 
four or five hours a day to keep up her musical character ? 
What motive has she for perseverance ? She is, perhaps, al- 
ready tired of playing to all her acquaintance. She may 
really take pleasure in hearing good music ; but her own per- 
formance will not then please her ear so much as that of ma- 



326 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ny others. She will prefer the more indolent pleasure of 
hearing the best music that can be heard for money at public 
concerts. She will then of course leave off playing, but con- 
tinue very fond of music. How often is the labour of years 
thus lost for ever ! 

Those who have excelled in drawing do not appear to 
abandon the occupation so suddenly; it does not demand 
such an inordinate quantity of time to keep up the talent ; the 
exertion of the imitative powers with apparent success, is 
agreeable ; the employment is progressive, and, therefore, the 
mind is carried on to complete what has been begun. Inde- 
pendently of all applause, which may be expected for the 
performance, there is a pleasure in going on with the work. 
But setting aside enthusiasm and habit, the probability that 
any sensible person will continue to pursue a given employ- 
ment, must depend, in a great measure, upon their own con- 
viction of its utility, or of its being agreeable to those whom 
they wish to please. The pleasure which a lady's friends re- 
ceive from her drawings, arises chiefly from the perception of 
their comparative excellence. Comparative excellence is all 
to which gentlewomen artists usually pretend, all to which 
they expect to attain ; positive excellence is scarcely attained 
by one in a hundred. Compared with the performances of 
other young ladies of their acquaintance, the drawings of Miss 
X or Y may be justly considered as charming ! admirable ! 
and astonishing ! But there are few drawings by young la- 
dies which can be compared with those of a professed artist. 
The wishes of obliging friends are satisfied with a few draw- 
ings in handsome frames, to be hung up for the young lady's 
credit ; and when it is allowed amongst their acquaintance, 
that she draws in a superior style, the purpose of this part of 
her education is satisfactorily answered. We do not here 
speak of those few individuals who really excel in drawing, 
who have learnt something more than the common routine 
which is usually learnt from a drawing-master, who have ac- 
quired an agreeable talent, not for the mere purpose of ex- 
hibiting themselves, but for the sake of the occupation it af- 
fords, and the pleasure it may give to their friends. We have 
the pleasure of knowing some who exactly answer to this 
description, and who must feel themselves distinct and hon- 
ourable exceptions to these general observations. 

From whatever cause it arises, we may observe, that after 
young women are settled in life, their taste for drawing and 
music gradually declines. For this fact, we can appeal only 
to the recollection of individuals. We may hence form some 
estimate of the real value which ought to be put upon what 
are called accomplishments, considered as occupations. Hence 
we may also conclude, that parents do not form their judg- 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 327 

ments from the facts which they see every day in real life ; 
or else may we not infer, that they deceive themselves as to 
their own motives ; and that, amongst the reasons which make 
them so anxious about the accomplishments of their daugh- 
ters, there are some secret motives more powerful than those 
which are usually openly acknowledged ? 

It is admitted in the cabinet council of mothers, that some 
share of the value of accomplishments depends upon the de- 
mand for them in the fashionable world. " A young lady," 
they say, " is nobody, and nothing, without accomplishments ; 
they are as necessary to her as a fortune : they are in- 
deed considered as part of her fortune, and sometimes are 
even found to supply the place of it. Next to beauty, they 
are the best tickets of admission into society which she can 
produce ; and every body knows, that on the company she 
keeps, depends the chance of a young woman's settling advan- 
tageously in the world." 

To judge of what w-ill please and attach men of superior 
sense and characters — — we are not quite certain that these 
are the men who are to be considered first, when we speak of 
a young lady's settling advantageously in the world ; but we 

will take this for granted to judge of what will please and 

attach men of superior sense and characters, we must observe 
their actual conduct in life, and listen to their speculative opin- 
ions. Superficial accomplishments do not appear to be the 
objects of their preference. In enumerating the perfections 
of his wife, or in retracing the progress of his love, does a man 
of sense dwell upon his mistress's skill in drawing, or dancing, 
or music ? No. These, he tells you, are extremely agreeable 
talents, but they could have never attached him ; they are 
subordinate parts in her character ; he is angry that you can 
rank them amongst her perfections ; he knows that a thousand 
women possess these accomplishments, who have never touch- 
ed his heart. He does not, perhaps, deny, that in Chloe, al- 
together, they have power to please, but he does not think 
them essential to her power. 

The opinion of women, who have seen a good deal of the 
world, is worth attending to upon this subject; especially if 
we can obtain it when their passions are wholly uninterested 
in their decision. Whatever may be the judgment of individ- 
uals concerning the character and politics of the celebrated 
Madame Roland, her opinion as a woman of abilities, and a 
woman who had seen a variety of life, will be thought deserv- 
ing of attention. Her book was written at a time when she 
was in daily expectation of death, when she could have no mo- 
tive to conceal her real sentiments upon any subject. She 
gives an account of her employments in prison, and, amongst 
others, mentions music and drawing. 



328 PRACT1CAJL EDUCATION. 

" I then employed myself in drawing till dinner time. I 
had so long been out of the habit of using a pencil, that J 
could not expect to be very dexterous ; but we commonly re- 
tain the power of repeating with pleasure, or at least of at- 
tempting with ease, whatever we have successfully practised 
in our youth. Therefore the study of the fine arts, consider- 
ed as a part of female education, should be attended to, much 
less with a view to the acquisition of superior talents, than 
with a desire to give women a taste for industry, the habit of 
application, and a greater variety of employments ; for these 
assist us to escape from ennui, the most cruel disease of civil- 
ized society; by these we are preserved from the dangers of 
vice, and even from those seductions which are far more likely 
to lead us astray. 

" I would not make my daughter a performer.* I remem- 
ber that my mother was afraid that I should become a great 
musician, or that I should have devoted myself entirely to paint- 
ing: she wished that I should, above all other things, love the 
duties of my sex : that I should be a good economist, a good 
mistress, as well as a good mother of a family. I wish my Eu- 
dora to be able to accompany her voice agreeably on the 
harp. I wish that she may play agreeably on the piano-forte ; 
that she may know enough of drawing, to feel pleasure from 
the sight and from the examination of the finest pictures of the 
great painters ; that she may be able to draw a flower that 
happens to please her ; and that she may unite in her dress 
elegance and simplicity. I should wish that her talents might 
be such, that they should neither excite the admiration of 
others, nor inspire her with vanity ; I should wish that she 
should please by the general effect of her whole character, 
without ever striking any body with astonishment at first 
sight ; and that she should attach by her good qualities, rather 
than shine by her accomplishments." 

Women cannot foresee what may be the tastes of the indi- 
viduals with whom they are to pass their lives. Their own 
tastes should not, therefore, be early decided ; they should, if 
possible, be so educated, that they may attain any talent in 
perfection which they may desire, or which their circum- 
stances may render necessary. If, for instance, a woman 
were to marry a man who was fond of music, or who admired 
painting, she should be able to cultivate these talents for his 
amusement and her own. If he be a man of sense and feel- 
ing, he will be more pleased with the motive than with the 
thing that is actually done. But if it be urged, that all wo- 
men cannot expect to marry men of sense and feeling ; and if 
we are told, that nevertheless they must look to " an advanta- 

* Une Virtuose. 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 329 

geous establishment," we must conclude, that men of rank and 
fortune are meant by that comprehensive phrase. Another set 
of arguments must be used to those who speculate on their 
daughters' accomplishments in this line. They have, perhaps, 
seen some instances of what they call success ; they have seen 
some young women of their acquaintance, whose accomplish- 
ments have attracted men of fortune superior to their own; 
consequently, maternal tenderness is awakened, and many mo- 
thers are sanguine in their expectations of the effect of their 
daughters' education. But they forget that every body now 
makes the same reflections, that parents are, and have been for 
some years speculating in the same line ; consequently, the 
market is likely to be overstocked, and, of course, the value of 
the commodities must fall. Every young lady (and every young 
woman is now a young lady) has some pretensions to accom- 
plishments. She draws a little ; or she plays a little, or she 
speaks French a little. Evert the blue-board boarding schools, 
ridiculed by Miss Allscript in the Heiress, profess to perfect 
young ladies in some or all of these necessary parts of edu- 
cation. Stop at any good inn on the London roads, and you 
will probably find that the landlady's daughter can show you 
some of her own framed drawings, can play a tune upon her 
spinnet, or support a dialogue in French of a reasonable 
length, in the customary questions and answers. Now it is 
the practice in high life to undervalue, and avoid as much as 
possible, every thing which descends to the inferior classes 
of society. The dress of to-day is unfashionable to-morrcw, 
because every body wears it. The dress is not preferred 
because it is pretty or useful, but because it is the distinction 
of well bred people. In the same manner accomplishments 
have lost much of that value which they acquired from opin- 
ion, since they have become common. They are now so 
common, that they cannot be considered as the distinguishing 
characteristics of even a gentlewoman's education. The 
higher classes in life, and those individuals who aim at dis- 
tinction, now establish another species of monopoly, and se- 
cure to themselves a certain set of expensive masters in mu- 
sic, drawing, dancing, &c. and they endeavour to believe, and 
to make others believe, that no one can be well educated with- 
out having served an apprenticeship of so many lessons under 
some of these privileged masters. But it is in vain that they 
intrench themselves, they are pursued by the intrusive vul- 
gar. In a wealthy, mercantile nation, there is nothing which 
can be bought for money, which will long continue to be an 
envied distinction. The hope of attaining to that degree of 
eminence in the fine arts which really deserves celebrity, be- 
comes every day more difficult to private practitioners, be- 
42 



330 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

cause the number of competitors daily increases ; and it is 
the interest of masters to forward their pupils by every pos- 
sible means. Both genius and perseverance must now be 
united to obtain the prize of distinction ; and how seldom 
are they found, or kept together, in the common course of 
education ! 

Considering all these circumstances, is not there some rea- 
son to apprehend, that in a few years the taste for several 
fashionable appendages of female education, may change, and 
that those will consequently be treated with neglect, who 
have no other claim to public regard, than their proficiency 
in what may, perhaps, then be thought vulgar or obsolete ac- 
complishments ? Our great grandmothers distinguished them- 
selves by truly substantial tent-work chairs and carpets, by 
needle-work pictures of Solomon and the queen of Sheba. 
These were admirable in their day, but their day is over ; 
and these useful, ingenious, and laborious specimens of female 
talents, are consigned to the garret, or they are produced but 
as curiosities, to excite wonder at the strange patience and 
miserable destiny of former generations : the taste for tapes- 
try and embroidery is thus past ; the long labours of the 
loom have ceased. Cloth-work, crape-work, chenille-work, 
ribbon-work, wafer-work, with a long train of etceteras, have 
all passed away in our own memory ; yet these conferred 
much evanescent fame, and a proportional quantity of vain 
emulation. A taste for drawing, or music, cannot be classed 
with any of these trifling performances ; but there are many 
faded drawings of the present generations, which cannot stand 
in competition with the glowing and faithful colours of the 
silk and worsted of former times ; and many of the hours 
spent at a stammering harpsichord, might, surely, with full as 
much domestic advantage, have been devoted to the embel- 
lishment of chairs and carpets. We hope that no one will so 
perversely misunderstand us, as to infer from these remarks, 
that we ctesire to see the revival of old tapestry work; or 
that we condemn the elegant accomplishments of music and 
drawing. We condemn only the abuse of these accomplish- 
ments ; we only wish that they should be considered as do- 
mestic occupations, not as matters of competition, or of exhi- 
bition, nor yet as the means of attracting temporary admira- 
tion. We are not afraid that any, who are really conscious 
of having acquired accomplishments with these prudent and 
honourable views, should misapprehend what has been said. 
Mediocrity may, perhaps, attempt to misrepresent our re- 
marks, and may endeavour to make it appear that we have 
attacked, and that we would discourage, every effort of fe- 
male taste and ingenuity in the fine arts ; we cannot, there- 
fore, be too explicit in disclaiming such illiberal views. 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 331 

We have not yet spoken of dancing, though it is one of the 
most admired of female accomplishments. This evidently is 
an amusement, not an occupation ; it is an agreeable exer- 
cise, useful to the health, and advantageous, as it confers a 
certain degree of habitual ease and grace. Mr. Locke seems 
to think, that it gives young people confidence in themselves 
when they come into company, and that it is, therefore, ex- 
pedient to teach children early to dance : but there are so 
many other methods of inspiring young people with this con- 
fidence in themselves, that it appears unnecessary to lay much 
stress upon this argument. If children live in good company, 
and see constantly people with agreeable manners, they will 
acquire manners which the dancing master does not always 
teach ; and they will easily vary their forms of politeness 
with the fashion of the day. Nobody comes into a room 
regularly as their dancing master taught them to make their 
entrance ; we should think a strict adherence to his lessons 
ridiculous and awkward in well bred company ; therefore 
much must be left to the discretion and taste of the pupil, af- 
ter the dancing master has made his last bow. Ease of man- 
ners is not always attained by those who have been strictly 
disciplined by a Vestris, because the lessons are not always 
practised in precisely the same circumstances in which they 
were learnt : this confuses and confounds the pupils, and they 
rather lose than gain confidence in themselves, from perceiv- 
ing that they cannot immediately apply what they have been 
taught. But we need not expatiate upon this subject, because 
there are few parents of good sense, in any rank of life, who 
will not perceive that their daughter's manners cannot be 
formed or polished by a dancing master. We are not to con- 
sider dancing in a grave and moral light ; it is an amusement 
much more agreeable to young people, and much better suit- 
ed to them in every respect, than cards, or silent assemblies 
of formal visiters. It promotes cheerfulness, and prevents, in 
some measure, the habits of gossiping conversation, and the 
love of scandal. So far we most willingly agree with its most 
vivacious advocates, in its common eulogium. But this is not, 
we fear, saying enough. We see, or fancy that we see, the 
sober matron lay down her carefully assorted cards upon the 
card-table, and with dictatorial solemnity she pronounces, 
" That dancing is something more than an amusement ; that 
girls must learn to dance, because they must appear well in 
public ; because the young ladies who dance the best, are 
usually most taken notice of in public ; most admired by the 
other sex ; most likely, in short, not only to have their choice 
of the best partner in a ball room, but sometimes of the best 
partner for life." 



332 rilACTICAL EDUCATION. 

With submission to maternal authority, these arguments do 
not seem to be justified of late years. Girls, who dance re- 
markably well, are, it is true, admired in a ball room, and 
followed, perhaps, by those idle, thoughtless young men, who 
frequent public places merely for the want of something else 
to do. This race of beings are not particularly calculated to 
make good husbands in any sense of the word ; nor are they 
usually disposed to think of marriage in any other light than 
as the last desperate expedient to repair their injured fortunes. 
They set their wits against the sex in general, and consider 
themselves as in danger of being jockeyed into the matrimo- 
nial state. Some few, perhaps, who have not brought their 
imagination sufficiently under the command of the calculating 
faculty, are caught by beauty and accomplishments, and 
many against the common rules of interest. These men are 
considered with pity, or with ridicule, by their companions, 
as dupes who have suffered themselves to be taken in : others 
are warned by their fate ; and the future probability of simi- 
lar errors, of course, must be diminished. The fashionable 
apathj^, whether real or affected, with which young men 
lounge in public places, with scarcely the appearance of at- 
tention to the fair exhibiters before them, sufficiently marks 
the temper of the times ; and if the female sex have lost any 
thing of the respect and esteem which ought to be paid to 
them in society, they can scarcely expect to regain their 
proper influence by concessions to the false and vitiated taste 
of those who combine to treat them with neglect bordering 
upon insolence. If the system of female education, if the sys- 
tem of female manners, conspire to show in the fair sex a de- 
grading anxiety to attract worthless admiration, wealthy or 
titled homage, is it surprising that every young man, who has 
any pretensions to birth, fortune, or fashion, should consider 
himself as the arbiter of their fate, and the despotic judge of 
their merit? Women, who understand their real interests, per- 
ceive the causes of the contempt with which the sex is treat- 
ed by fashionable coxcombs, and they feel some indignation 
at the meanness with which this contempt, tacitly or openly 
expressed, is endured. Women, who feel none of this indig- 
nation, and who, either from their education, or their circum- 
stances, are only solicitous to obtain present amusement, or 
what they think the permanent advantages of a fortunate al- 
liance, will yet find themselves mistaken by persisting in their 
thoughtless career; they will not gain even the objects to 
which they aspire. How many accomplished belles run the 
usual round of dissipation in all public places of exhibition, 
tire the public eye, and, after a season or two, fade and are 
forgotten ! How many accomplished belles are there, who, 
having gained the object of their own, or of their mother's 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 333 

ambition, find themselves doomed to misery for life ! Those 
unequal marriages, which are sometimes called excellent 
matches, seldom produce much happiness. And where hap- 
piness is not, what is all the rest ? 

If all, or any of these reflections, should strike the heart, 
and convince the understanding, of an anxious, but reasona- 
ble mother, she will, probably, immediately determine upon 
her own conduct in the education of her daughters : she will 
resolve to avoid the common errors of the frivolous or 
the interested ; she will not be influenced by the importu- 
nity of every idle acquaintance, who may talk to her of the 
necessity of her daughter's being taken notice of in public, of 
the chances of an advantageous establishment, of the good for- 
tune of Miss Y ■ , or lady Angelina X , in meeting with 

a coxcomb or a spendthrift for a husband ; nor will she be 
moved with maternal emulation when she is further told, that 
these young ladies owed their success entirely to the superiori- 
ty of their accomplishments : she will consider, for one mo- 
ment, what is meant by the word success ; she will, perhaps, 
not be of opinion that " 'tis best repenting in a coach and 
six ;" she will, perhaps, reflect, that even the " soft sounds" 
of titled grandeur lose their power to please, and " salute the 
ear" almost unobserved. The happiness, the permanent hap- 
piness of her child, will be the first, the last object of the 
good and the enlightened mother: to this all her views and 
all her efforts will tend ; and to this she will make every fash- 
ionable, every elegant accomplishment subservient. 

As to the means of acquiring these accomplishments, it 
would be absurd, and presumptuous, to present here any 
vague precepts, or tedious details, upon the mode of learning 
drawing, dancing, and music. These can be best learned 
from the masters who profess to teach them, as far as the 
technical part is necessary. But success will not ultimately 
depend upon any technical instructions that a master can 
give : he may direct the efforts of industry so as to save 
much useless labour ; he may prevent his pupils from acquir- 
ing bad practical habits ; he may assist, but he cannot in- 
spire, the spirit of perseverance. A master, who is not ex- 
pected, or indeed allowed, to interfere in the general educa- 
tion of his pupils, can only diligently attend to them whilst he 
is giving his lessons ; he has not any power, except that per- 
nicious motive, competition, to excite them to excel ; his in- 
structions cannot be peculiarly adapted to their tempers or 
their understandings, because with these he is unacquainted. 
Now a sensible mother has it in her power to supply all these 
deficiencies ; even if she does not herself excel in any of the, 
accomplishments which her daughters are learning, her 
knowledge of their minds, her taste, her judgment, her affec- 



334 PUACTICAL EDUCATION. 

tion, her superintending intelligence, will he of inestimable 
value to her children. If she has any skill in any accom- 
plishment, she will, for the first years of her daughters' lives, 
be undoubtedly the best person to instruct them. By skill, 
we do not mean superior talents, or proficiency in music or 
drawing ; without these, she may be able to teach all that is 
necessary in the early part of education. One of the best 
motives which a woman can have to cultivate her talents after 
she marries, is the hope and belief, that she may be essential- 
ly serviceable in the instruction of her family. And that she 
may be essentially serviceable, let no false humility lead her 
to doubt. She need not be anxious for the rapid progress of 
her little pupils ; she need not be terrified if she see their 
equals in age surpass them under what she thinks more able 
tuition ; she may securely satisfy herself, that if she but in- 
spires her children with a desire to excel, with the habits of 
attention and industry, they will certainly succeed, sooner or 
later, in whatever it is desirable that they should learn. The 
exact age at which the music, dancing, or drawing master, 
should begin their instructions, need not be fixed. If a 
mother should not be so situated as to be able to procure the 
best masters for her daughters whilst they are yet children, 
she need not be in despair; a rapid progress is made in a 
short time by well educated young people ; those who have 
not acquired any bad habits, are easily taught : it should, 
therefore, seem prudent, if the best masters cannot be pro- 
cured at any given period of education, to wait patiently, than 
to hazard their first impressions, and the first habits which 
might be given by any inferior technical instruction. It is 
said, that the celebrated musician Timotheus, whose excel- 
lence in his art Alexander the conqueror of the world was 
forced to acknowledge, when pupils flocked to him from all 
parts of the world, had the prudence to demand double en- 
trance money from every scholar who had had any other 
music master. 

Besides the advantage of being entirely free from oth- 
er bad habits, children who are not taught by inferior 
masters, will not contract habits of listless application* Under 
the eye of an indolent person, children seldom give their entire 
attention to what they are about. They become mere ma- 
chines, and without using their own understanding in the least, 
have recourse to the convenient master upon every occasion. 
The utmost that children in such circumstances can learn, is 
all the technical part of the art which the master can teach. 
When the master is at last dismissed, and her education com- 
pleted, the pupil is left both fatigued and helpless. " Few 
have been taught to any purpose, who have not been their own 
♦eachers," says Sir Joshua Reynolds. This reflection upon 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 335 

the art of teaching, may, perhaps, be too general ; but those 
persons who look back upon their education, will, in many 
respects, allow it to be just. They will perceive that they 
have been too much taught, that they have learned every 
thing which they know as an art, and nothing as a science. 
Few people have sufficient courage to re-commence their own 
education, and for this reason few people get beyond a cer- 
tain point of mediocrity. It is easy to them to practise the 
lessons which they have learned, if they practise them in 
intellectual darkness ; but if you let in upon them one 
ray of philosophic light, you dazzle and confound them, so 
that they cannot even perform their customary feats. A 
young man,* who had been blind from his birth, had learned 
to draw a cross, a circle, and a square, with great accuracy ; 
when he was twenty, his eyes were couched, and when he 
could see perfectly well, he was desired to draw his circle 
and square. His new sense of seeing, so far from assisting 
him in this operation was extremely troublesome to him ; 
though he took more pains than usual, he performed very ill : 
confounded by the new difficulty, he concluded that sight 
was useless in all operations to be performed by the hand, 
and he thought his eyes would be of no use to him in future. 
How many people find their reason as useless and troublesome 
to them as this young man found his eye-sight. 

Whilst we are learning any mechanical operation, or whilst 
we are acquiring any technical art, the mind is commonly 
passive. In the first attempts, perhaps, we reason or invent 
ways of abridging our own labour, and the awkwardness of 
the unpractised hand is assisted by ingenuity and reflection \ 
but as we improve in manual dexterity, attention and ingenu- 
ity are no longer exerted ; we go on habitually without 
thought. — Thought would probably interrupt the operation, 
and break the chain of associated actions!. An artificer stops 
his hand the moment you ask him to explain what he is about : 
he can work and talk of indifferent objects ; but if he reflects 
upon the manner in which he performs certain slight of hand 
parts of his business, it is ten to one but he cannot go on with 
them. A man, who writes a free running hand, goes on with- 
out thinking of the manner in which he writes ; fix his atten- 
tion upon the manner in which he holds his pen, or forms his 
letters, and he probably will not write quite so fast, or so well 
as usual. When a girl first attempts to dress herself at a glass, 
the glass perplexes, instead of assisting her, because she thinks 
and reasons about every motion •, but when by habit she has 

* V. Storia di quattro fratelli nati ciechi e guariti coll' estrazione delle ca- 
teratte. — Di Francesco Buzzi. 
t V. Zoonomia. 



336 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

learned to move her hands in obedience to the fingel image,* 
which performs its exercise in the mirror, no further thought 
is employed. Make the child observe that she moves her left 
hand forward, when the image in the glass moves in a contra- 
ry manner, turn the child's attention to any of her own mo- 
tions, and she will make mistakes as she did before her hab- 
its were formed. 

Many occupations, which are generally supposed to depend 
upon the understanding, and which do probably depend in 
the first instance upon the understanding, become by practice 
purely mechanical. This is the case in many of the imitative 
arts. A person unused to drawing, exerts a great deal of at- 
tention in copying any new object ; but custom soon supplies 
the place of thought. By custom,! as a great artist assures 
us, he will become able to draw the human figure tolerably 
correctly, with as little effort of the mind, as to trace with a 
pen the letters of the alphabet. 

We must further observe, that the habit of pursuing any 
occupation, which requires no mental exertion, induces an in- 
dolence or incapacity of intellect. Mere artists are commonly 
as stupid as mere artificers, and these are little more than 
machines. 

The length of time which is required to obtain practical 
skill and dexterity in certain accomplishments, is one reason 
why there are so few people who obtain any thing more than 
mechanical excellence. They become the slaves of custom, 
and they become proud of their slavery. At first they might 
have considered custom as a tyrant ; but when they have 
obeyed her for a certain time, they do her voluntary homage 
ever after, as to a sovereign by divine right. To prevent this 
species of intellectual degradation, we must in education be 
careful to rank mere mechanical talents below the exercise 
of the mental powers. Thus the ambition of young people 
will be directed to high objects, and all inferior qualifications 
may be attained without contracting the understanding. 
Praise children for patience, for perseverance, for industry ; 
encourage them to reason and to invent upon all subjects, and 
you may direct their attention afterwards as you think proper. 
But if you applaud children merely for drawing a flower 
neatly, or copying a landscape, without exciting their ambi- 
tion to any thing higher, you will never create superior tal- 
ents, or a superior character. The proficiency that is made 
in any particular accomplishment, at any given age, should 
not be considered so much, even by those who highly value 
accomplishments, as the power, the energy, that is excited in 

* This word is sometimes by mistake spelt /wgaZ-man , 
t Sir Joshua Reynolds, 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 337 

the pupil's mind, from which future progress is ensured. The 
writing and drawing automaton performs its advertised won- 
ders to the satisfaction of the spectators ; but the machine is 
not " instinct with spirit f you cannot expect from its pencil 
the sketch of a Raphael, or from its pen the thoughts of a 
Shakespeare. It is easy to guide the hand, but who can 
transfuse a soul into the image ? 

It is not an uncommon thing to hear young people, who 
have been long under the tuition of masters, complain of their 
own want of genius. They are sensible that they have not 
made any great progress in any of the accomplishments which 
they have endeavoured to learn ; they see others, who have 
not, perhaps, had what they call such opportunities and advan- 
tages in their education, suddenly surpass them ; this they at- 
tribute to natural genius, and they say to themselves in despair, 
" Certainly I have no taste for drawing; I have no genius for 
music ; I have learned so many years, I have had so many les- 
sons from the best masters, and yet here is such and such a 
one, who has had no master, who has taught herself, and, 
perhaps, did not begin till late in life, has got before me, be- 
cause she has a natural genius for these things. She must 
have a natural taste for them, because she can sit whole hours 
at these things for her own pleasure. Now I never would 
take a pencil in my hand from my own choice ; and I am 
glad, at all events, that the time for lessons and masters is 
over. My education is finished, for I am of age." 

The disgust and despair, which are thus induced by an in- 
judicious education, absolutely defeat its own trivial purposes. 
So that, whatever may be the views of parents, whether they 
consider ornamental accomplishments as essential to their 
daughter's success in the world, or whether they value them 
rather as secondary objects, subordinate to her happiness ; 
whether they wish their daughter actually to excel in any 
particular accomplishment, or to have the power of excelling 
in any to which circumstances may direct her, 'k is in all cas- 
es advisable to cultivate the general power of the pupil's un- 
derstanding, instead of confining her to technical practices 
and precepts, under the eye of any master who does not pos- 
sess that which is the soul of every art. 

We do not mean any illiberal attack upon masters ; but in 
writing upon education, it is necessary to examine the utility 
of different modes of instruction, without fear of offending any 
class of men. We acknowledge, that it is seldom found, that 
l hose who can communicate their knowledge the best, possess 
the most, especially if this knowledge be that of an artist or a 
linguist. Before any person is properly qualified to teach, he 
must have the power of recollecting exactly how he learned ; 
he must go back step by step to the point at which he began, 
43 



338 PRACTICAL EDUCATION". 

and he must be able to conduct his pupil through the same 
path without impatience or precipitation. He must not only 
have acquired a knowledge of the process by which his own 
ideas and habits were formed, but he must have extensive ex- 
perience of the varieties of the human mind. He must not 
suppose, that the operations of intellect are carried on in 
the same manner in all minds; he must not imagine, that 
there is but one method of teaching, which will suit all 
persons alike. The analogies which strike his own mind, 
the arrangement of ideas, which to him appears the most 
perspicuous, to his pupil may appear remote and confused. 
He must not attribute this to his pupil's inattention, stupidity, 
or obstinacy ; but he must attribute it to the true causes ; the 
different association of ideas in different minds, the different 
habits of thinking, which arise from their various tempers and 
previous education. He must be acquainted with the habits 
of all tempers : the slow, the quick, the inventive, the investi- 
gating ; and he must adapt his instructions accordingly. There 
is something more requisite : a master must not only know 
what he professes to teach of his own peculiar art or science, 
but he ought to know all its bearings and dependences. He 
must be acquainted not only with the local topography of his 
own district, but he must have the whole map of human 
knowledge before him ; and whilst he dwells most upon his 
own province, he must yet be free from local prejudices, and 
must consider himself as a citizen of the world. Children 
who study geography in small separate maps, understand, 
perhaps, the view of each country tolerably well ; but we see 
them quite puzzled when they are to connect these maps in 
their idea of the world. They do not know the relative size 
or situation of England or France ; they cannot find London 
or Paris when they look for the first time upon the globe, and 
every country seems to be turned upside down in their imagi- 
nation. Young people who learn particular arts and sciences 
from masters who have confined their view to the boundaries 
of each, without having given an enlarged idea of the whole, 
are much in the same situation with these unfortunate ge- 
ographers. 

The persisting to teach things separately, which ought to 
be taught as a whole, must prevent the progress of mental 
cultivation.* The division and subdivision of different parts 
of education, which are monopolized as trades by the masters 
who profess to teach them, must lend to increase and perpetu- 
ate error. These intellectual casts are pernicious. 

It is said, that the Persians had masters to teach their chil- 
dren each separate virtue : one master to teach justice, another 
fortitude, another temperance, and so on. How these mas- 
-- , t , , . „_, ,. ~- 

* Condillac. 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 339 

ters could preserve the boundaries of their several moral ter^ 
ritories, it is not easy to imagine, especially if they all insisted 
upon independent sovereignty. There must have been some 
danger, surely, of their disputing with one another concerning 
the importance of their respective professions, like the poor 
bourgeois gentilhornme's dancing-master, music-master, master 
of morality, and master of philosophy, who all fell to blows 
to settle their pretensions, forgetful of the presence of their 
pupil. Masters, who are only expected to teach one thing, 
may be sincerely anxious for the improvement of their pupils 
in that particular, without being in the least interested for 
their general character or happiness. Thus the drawing- 
master has done his part, and is satisfied if he teaches his pu- 
pil to draw well : it is no concern of his what her temper may 
be, any more than what sort of hand she writes, or how she 
dances. The dancing-master, in his turn, is wholly indiffer- 
ent about the young lady's progress in drawing ; all he un- 
dertakes, is to teach her to dance. 

We mention these circumstances to show parents, that mas- 
ters, even when they do the utmost that they engage to do, 
cannot educate their children ; they can only partially instruct 
them in particular arts. Parents must themselves preside 
over the education of their children, or must entirely give 
them into the care of some person of an enlarged and philo- 
sophic mind, who can supply all the deficiencies of common 
masters, and who can take advantage of all the positive good 
that can be obtained from existing institutions. Such a pre- 
ceptor or governess must possess extensive knowledge, and 
that superiority of mind which sees the just proportion and 
value of every acquisition, which is not to be overawed by 
authority, or dazzled by fashion. Under the eye of such 
persons, masters will keep precisely their proper places ; they 
will teach all they can teach, without instilling absurd preju- 
dices, or inspiring a spirit of vain rivalship ; nor will masters 
be suffered to continue their lessons when they have nothing 
more to teach. 

Parents who do not think that they have leisure, or feel 
that they have capacity, to take the entire direction of their 
children's education upon themselves, will trust this important 
office to a governess. The inquiry concerning the value of 
female accomplishments, has been purposely entered into be- 
fore we could speak of the choice of a governess, because the 
estimation in which these are held, will very much determine 
parents in their choice. 

If what has been said of the probability of a decline in the 
public taste for what are usually called accomplishments ; of 
their little utility to the happiness of families and individuals j 
of the waste of time, and waste of the higher powers of the 



340 PRACTICAL EOtJCATlOtt. 

mind in acquiring them: if what has been observed on any 
of these points is allowed to be just, we shall have little diffi- 
culty in pursuing the same principles further. In the choice 
of a governess we should not, then, consider her fashionable 
accomplishments as her best recommendations ; these will be 
only secondary objects. We shall examine with more anxie- 
ty, whether she possess a sound, discriminating, and enlarged 
understanding: whether her mind be free from prejudice; 
whether she has steadiness of temper to pursue her own 
plans ; and, above all, whether she has that species of integ- 
rity which will justify a parent in trusting a child to her care. 
We shall attend to her conversation, and observe her man- 
ners, with scrupulous minuteness. Children are imitative an- 
imals, and they are peculiarly disposed to imitate the lan- 
guage, manners, and gestures, of those with whom they live, and 
to whom they look up with admiration. In female education, 
too much care cannot be taken to form all those habits in 
morals and in manners, which are distinguishing characteris- 
tics of amiable women. These habits must be acquired early, 
or they will never appear easy or graceful ; they will neces- 
sarily be formed by those who see none but good models. 

We have already pointed out the absolute necessity of 
union amongst all those who are concerned in a child's edu- 
cation. A governess must either rule, or obey, decidedly. 
If she do not agree with the child's parents in opinion, she 
must either know how to convince them by argument, or she 
must with strict integrity conform her practice to their theo- 
ries. There are few parents, who will choose to give up the 
entire care of their children to any governess ; therefore, 
there will probably be some points in which a difference of 
opinion will arise. A sensible woman will never submit to be 
treated, as governesses are in some families, like the servant 
who was asked by his master what business he had to think : 
nor will a woman of sense or temper insist upon her opinions 
without producing her reasons. She will thus insure the res- 
pect and the confidence of enlightened parents. 

It is surely the interest of parents to treat the person who 
educates their children, with that perfect equality and kind- 
ness, which will conciliate her affection, and which will at the 
same time preserve her influence and authority over her pu- 
pils. And it is with pleasure we observe, that the style of 
behaviour to governesses, in well bred families, is much 
changed within these few years. A governess is no longer 
treated as an upper servant, or as an intermediate being be- 
tween a servant and a gentlewoman : she is now treated as 
the friend and companion of the family, and she must, conse- 
quently, have warm and permanent interest in its prosperity ; 
she becomes attached to her pupils from gratitude to their pa- 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C 341 

rents, from sympathy, from generosity, as well as from the 
strict sense of duty. 

In fashionable life there is, however, some danger that pa- 
rents should go into extremes in their behaviour towards their 
governesses. Those who disdain the idea of assuming supe- 
riority of rank and fortune, and who desire to treat the person 
who educates their children as their equal, act with perfect 
propriety ; but if they make her their companion in all their 
amusements, they go a step too far, and they defeat their 
own purposes. If a governess attends the card-table, and 
the assembly-room ; if she is to visit, and be visited, what is 
to become of her pupils in her absence ? They must be left 
to the care of servants. There are some ladies who will not 
accept of any invitation, in which the governess of their chil- 
dren is not included. This may be done from a good motive, 
but, surely, it is unreasonable ; for the very use of a gover- 
ness is to supply the mother's place in her absence. Cannot 
this be managed better ? Cannot the mother and governess 
both amuse themselves at different times? There would then 
be perfect equality ; the governess would be in the same so- 
ciety, and would be treated with the same respect, without 
neglecting her duty. The reward which is given to women 
of abilities, and of unblemished reputation, who devote them- 
selves to the superintendence of the education of young ladies 
in the higher ranks of life, the daughters of our affluent nobili- 
ty, ought to be considerably greater than what it is at pres- 
ent : it ought to be such as to excite women to cultivate their 
talents, and their understandings, with a view to this profes- 
sion. A profession we call it, for it should be considered as such, 
as an honourable profession, which a gentlewoman might fol- 
low without losing any degree of the estimation in which she 
is held by what is called the world. There is no employment, 
at present, by which a gentlewoman can maintain herself, 
without losing something of that respect, something of that 
rank in society, which neither female fortitude nor male phi- 
losophy willingly foregoes. The liberal professions are open 
to men of small fortunes ; by presenting one similar resource 
to women, we should give a strong motive for their moral and 
intellectual improvement. 

Nor does it seem probable, that they should make a dis- 
graceful or imprudent use of their increasing influence and 
liberty in this case, because their previous education must 
previously prepare them properly. The misfortune of wo- 
men has usually been, to have power trusted to them before 
they were educated to use it prudently. To say that precep- 
tresses in the higher ranks of life should be liberally reward- 
ed, is but a vague expression ; something specific should be 
mentioned, wherever general utility is the object. Let us 



342 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

observe, that many of the first dignities of the church are be- 
stowed, and properly bestowed, upon men who have educa- 
ted the highest ranks of our nobility. Those who look with 
an evil eye upon these promotions, do not fairly estimate the 
national importance of education for the rich and powerful. 
No provision can be made for women who direct the educa- 
tion of the daughters of our nobility, any ways equivalent to 
the provision made for preceptors by those who have influ- 
ence in the state. A pecuniary compensation is in the power 
of opulent families. Three hundred a year, for twelve or 
fourteen years, the space of time which a preceptress must 
probably employ in the education of a young lady, would be 
a suitable compensation for her care. With this provision 
she would be enabled, after her pupil's education was com- 
pleted, either to settle in her own family, or she would, in the 
decline of life, be happily independent, secure from the temp- 
tation of marrying for money. If a few munificent and en- 
lightened individuals set the example of liberally rewarding 
merit in this situation, many young women will probably ap- 
pear with talents and good qualities suited to the views of the 
most sanguine parents. With good sense, and literary tastes, 
a young woman might instruct herself during the first years 
of her pupil's childhood, and might gradually prepare herself 
with all the necessary knowledge : according to the princi- 
ples that have been suggested, there would be no necessity for 
her being a mistress of arts, a performer in music, a paintress, 
a linguist, or a poetess. A general knowledge of literature is 
indispensable; and yet further, she must have sufficient taste 
and judgment to direct the literary talents of her pupils. 

With respect to the literary education of the female sex, 
the arguments on both sides of the question have already 
been stated, with all the impartiality in our power, in another 
place.* Without obtruding a detail of the same arguments 
again upon the public, it will be sufficient to profess the dis- 
tinct opinion, which a longer consideration of the subject has 
yet more fully confirmed, That it will tend to the happiness 
of society in general, that women should have their under- 
standings cultivated and enlarged as much as possible ; that 
the happiness of domestic life, the virtues and the powers of 
pleasing in the female sex, the yet more desirable power of 
attaching those worthy of their love and esteem, will be in- 
creased by the judicious cultivation of the female understand- 
ing, more than by all that modern gallantry or ancient chival- 
ry could devise in favour of the sex. Much prudence and 
ability are requisite to conduct properly a young woman's 
literary education. Her imagination must not be raised 

* V. Letters for Literary Ladies. 



FEMALE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, &C. 343 

above the taste for necessary occupations, or the numerous 
small, but not trifling, pleasures of domestic life : her mind 
must be enlarged, yet the delicacy of her manners must be 
preserved : her knowledge must be various, and her powers 
of reasoning unawed by authority; yet she must habitually 
feel that nice sense of propriety, which is at once the guard 
and the charm of every feminine virtue. By early caution, un- 
remitting, scrupulous caution in the choice of the books which 
are put into the hands of girls, a mother or a preceptress, 
may fully occupy and entertain their pupils, and excite in 
their minds a taste for propriety, as well as a taste for litera- 
ture. It cannot be necessary to add more than this general 
idea, that a mother ought to be answerable to her daughter's 
husband for the books her daughter had read, as well as for 
the company she had kept. 

Those observations, which apply equally to the cultivation 
of the understanding both of men and of women, we do not 
here mean to point out ; we would speak only of what may 
be peculiar to female education. From the study of the ^ 
learned languages, women, by custom, fortunately for them, 
are exempted : of ancient literature they may, in translations 
which are acknowledged to be excellent, obtain a sufficient 
knowledge, without paying too much time and labour for this 
classic pleasure. Confused notions from fashionable publica- 
tions, from periodical papers, and comedies, have made their 
way into common conversation, and thence have assumed an 
appearance of authority, and have been extremely disadvan- 
tageous to female education. Sentiment and ridicule have 
conspired to represent reason, knowledge, and science, as un- 
suitable or dangerous to women ; yet at the same time wit, 
and superficial acquirements in literature, have been the ob- 
ject of admiration in society ; so that this dangerous inference 
has been drawn, almost without our perceiving its fallacy, 
that superficial knowledge is more desirable in women than 
accurate knowledge. This principle must lead to innumera- 
ble errors ; it must produce continual contradictions in the 
course of education : instead of making women more reason- 
able, and less presuming, it will render them at once arrogant 
and ignorant; full of pretensions, incapable of application, 
and unfit to hear themselves convinced. Whatever young 
women learn, let them be taught accurately ; let them know 
ever so little apparently, they will know much if they have 
learnt that little zoell. A girl who runs through a course of 
natural history, hears something about chemistry, has been 
taught something of botany, and who knows but just enough 
of these to make her fancy that she is well informed, is in a 
miserable situation, in danger of becoming ridiculous, and in- 
supportably tiresome to men of sense and science. But let a 



344 . PRACTICAL EDUCATION*. 

woman know any one thing completely, and she will have 
sufficient understanding to learn more, and to apply what she 
has been taught so as to interest men of generosity and genius 
in her favour. The knowledge of the general principles of any 
science, is very different from superficial knowledge of the 
science ; perhaps, from not attending to this distinction, or 
from not understanding it, many have failed in female educa- 
tion. Some attempt will be made to mark this distinction 
practically, when we come to speak of the cultivation of the 
memory, invention, and judgment. No intelligent preceptress 
will, it is hoped, find any difficulty in the application of the 
observations they may meet with in the chapters on imagina- 
tion, sympathy and sensibility, vanity and temper. The 
masculine pronoun he, has been used for grammatical conve- 
nience, not at all because we agree with the prejudiced, and 
uncourteous grammarian, who asserts, " that the masculine is 
the more worthy gender." 



CHAPTER XXL 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 



Before we bestow many years of time and pains upon any 
object, it may be prudent to afford a few minutes previously 
to ascertain its precise value. Many persons have a vague 
idea of the great value of memory, and, without analyzing 
their opinion, they resolve to cultivate the memories of their 
children as much, and as soon, as possible. So far from 
having determined the value of this talent, w r e shall find that 
it will be difficult to give a popular definition of a good 
memory. Some people call that a good memory which 
retains the greatest number of ideas for the longest time. 
Others prefer a recollective to a retentive memory, and 
value not so much the number, as the selection, of facts; 
not so much the mass, or even the antiquity, of accumulated 
treasure, as the power of producing current specie for imme- 
diate use. Memory is sometimes spoken of as if it were a 
faculty admirable in itself, without any union with the other 
powers of the mind. Amongst those who allow that memory 
has no independent claim to regard, there are yet many who 
believe, that a superior degree of memory is essential to the 
successful exercise of the higher faculties, such as judgment 
and invention. The degree in which it is useful to those 
powers, has not, however, been determined. Those who are 
governed in their opinions by precedent and authority, can 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 345 

produce many learned names, to prove that memory was 
held in the highest estimation amongst the great men of an- 
tiquity; it was cultivated with much anxiety in their public 
institutions, and in their private education. But there were 
many circumstances, which formerly contributed to make a 
great memory essential to a great man. In civil and military 
employments, amongst the ancients, it was in a high degree 
requisite. Generals were expected to know by heart the 
names of the soldiers in their armies ; demagogues, who 
hoped to please the people, were expected to know the names 
of all their fellow-citizens.* Orators, who did not speak ex- 
tempore, were obliged to get their long orations by rote. 
Those who studied science or philosophy, were obliged to 
cultivate their memory with incessant care, because, if they 
frequented the schools for instruction, they treasured up the 
sayings of the masters of different sects, and learned their 
doctrines only by oral instruction. Manuscripts were fre- 
quently got by heart by those who were eager to secure the 
knowledge they contained, and who had not opportunities of 
recurring to the originals. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
memory, to which so much was trusted, should have been 
held in such high esteem. 

At the revival of literature in Europe, before the discovery 
of the art of printing, it was scarcely possible to make any 
progress in the literature of the age, without possessing a re- 
tentive memory. A man who had read a few manuscripts, 
and could repeat them, was a wonder, and a treasure : he 
could travel from place to place, and live by his learning ; he 
was a circulating library to a nation, and the more books 
he could carry in his head, the better : he was certain of an 
admiring audience if he could repeat what Aristotle or Saint 
Jerome had written ; and he had far more encouragement to 
engrave the words of others on his memory, than to invent or 
judge for himself. 

In the twelfth century, above six hundred scholars assem- 
bled in the forests of Champagne, to hear the lectures of the 
learned Abeillard ; they made themselves huts of the boughs 
of trees, and in this new academic grove were satisfied to go 
almost without the necessaries of life. In the specimens of 
Abeillard's composition, which are handed down to us, we 
may discover proofs of his having been vain of a surprising 
memory ; it seems to have been the superior faculty of his 
mind: his six hundred pupils could carry away with them 
only so much of his learning as they coulel get by heart dur- 



* V. Plutarch. Quintilian. 
44 



346 l'KACTICAL EDUCATIONS 

ing his course of lectures; and he who had the best memory, 
must have been best paid for his journey.* 

The art of printing, by multiplying copies so as to put them 
within the easy reference of all classes of people, has lowered 
the value of this species of retentive memory. It is better to 
refer to the book itself, than to the man who has read the 
book. Knowledge is now ready classed for use, and it is 
safely stored up in the great common-place books of public 
libraries. A man of literature need not incumber his memo- 
ry with whole passages from the authors he wants to quote ; 
he need only mark down the page, and the words are safe. 

Mere erudition does not in these days ensure permanent 
fame. The names of the Abbe de Longuerue, and of the 
Florentine librarian Magliabechi, excite no vivid emotions in 
the minds of those who have heard of them before ; and there 
are many, perhaps not illiterate persons, who would not be 
ashamed to own that they had never heard of them at all. 
Yet these men were both of them, but a few years ago, re- 
markable for extraordinary memory and erudition. When 
M. de Longuerue was a child, he was such a prodigy of 
memory and knowledge, that Lewis the fourteenth, passing 
through the abbe's province stopped to see and hear him. 
When he grew up, Paris consulted him as the oracle of learn- 
ing. His erudition, says d'Alembert,t was not only prodi- 
gious, but actually terrible. Greek and Hebrew were more 
familiar to him than his native tongue. His memory was so 
well furnished with historic facts, with chronological and 
topographical knowledge, that upon hearing a person assert in 
conversation, that it would be a difficult task to write a good 
historical description of France,| he asserted, that he could do 
it from memory, without consulting any books. All he asked, 
was, to have some maps of France laid before him : these re- 
called to his mind the history of each province, of all the fiefs 
of the crown of each city, and even of each distinguished no- 
bleman's seat in the kingdom. He wrote his folio history in 
a year. It was admired as a great curiosity in manuscript ; 
but when it came to be printed, sundry gross errors appear- 
ed : he was obliged to take out several leaves in correcting 
the press. The edition was very expensive, and the work, at 
last, would have been rather more acceptable to the public, if 
the author had not written it from memory. Love of the 
wonderful must yield to esteem for the useful. 

The effect which all this erudition had upon the Abbe de 
Longuerue's taste, judgment, and imagination, is worth our 

* Berrington's History of the Lives of Abeillard and Heloisa, page 173, 

t Elog-e de M. L'Abbj* d'Alary. 

| Marquis d'Argenson's Essays, page 385. 



MEMORY AND INVEJSTION. 347 

attention. Some of his opinions speak sufficiently for our 
purpose. He was of opinion that the English have never 
done any good,* since they renounced the study of Greek 
and Arabic, for Geometry and Physics. He was of opinion, 
that two antiquarian books upon Homer, viz. Antiquitates Ho- 
mericce and Homeri Gnomoligia, are preferable to Homer him- 
self. He would rather have them, he declared, because with 
these he had all that was useful in the poet, without being ob- 
liged to go through long stories, which put him to sleep. " As 
for that madman Ariosto," said he, " I sometimes divert my- 
self with him." One odd volume of Racine was the only 
French book to be found in his library. His erudition died 
with him, and the world has not profited much by his surpris- 
ing memory. 

The librarian Magliabechi was no less famous than M. de 
Longuerue for his memory, and he was yet more strongly af- 
fected by the mania for books. His appetite for them was 
so voracious, that he acquired the name of the glutton of liter- 
ature.! Before he died, he had swallowed six large rooms full 
of books. Whether he had time to digest any of them we do 
not know, but we are sure that he wished it; for the only line 
of his own composition which he has left for the instruction of 
posterity, is round a medal. The medal represents him sit- 
ting with a book in his hand, and with a great number of 
books scattered on the floor round him. The candid inscrip- 
tion signifies, that to become learned it is not sufficient to 
read much, if we read without reflection. The names of 
Franklin and of Shakespeare are known wherever literature 
is cultivated, to all who have any pretensions to science or 
to genius ; yet they were neither of them men of extraordina- 
ry erudition, nor from their works should we judge that mem- 
ory was their predominant faculty. It may be said, that a 
superior degree of memory was essential to the exercise of 
their judgment and invention ; that without having treasured up 
in his memory, a variety of minute observations upon human 
nature, Shakespeare could never have painted the passions 
with so bold and just a hand ; that if Franklin had not accu- 
rately remembered his own philosophical observations, and 
those of others, he never would have made those discoveries 
which have immortalized his name. Admitting the justice of 
these assertions, we see that memory to great men, is but a 
subordinate servant, a treasurer who receives, and is expected 
to keep faithfully whatever is committed to his care ; and 
not only to preserve faithfully all deposits, but to produce 
them at the moment they are wanted. There are substances 

* D'Alembert's Eloge de M. d'Alary. 

t Curiosities of Literature, vol ii. page 145. 



348 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

which are said to imbibe and retain the rays of light, and to 
emit them only in certain situations. As long as they retain 
the rays, no eye regards them. 

It has often been observed, that a recollective and retentive 
memory are seldom found united. If this were true, and that 
we had our choice of either, which should we prefer ? For 
the purposes of ostentation, perhaps the one ; for utility, the 
other. A person who could repeat from beginning to end 
the whole Economy of Human Life, which he hnd learned in 
his childhood, might, if we had time to sit still and listen to 
him, obtain our admiration for his extraordinary retentive 
memory ; but the person who, in daily occurrences, or inter- 
esting affairs, recollects at the proper time what is useful to us, 
obtains from our gratitude something more than vain admira- 
tion. To speak accurately, we must remark, that retentive 
and recollective memories are but relative terms : the recol- 
lective memory must be retentive of all that it recollects ; the 
retentive memory cannot show itself till the moment it becomes 
recollective. But we value either precisely in proportion as 
they are useful and agreeable. 

Just at the time when philosophers were intent upon trying 
experiments in electricity, Dr. Heberden recollected to have 
seen, many years before, a small electrical stone, called tour- 
malin,* in the possession of Dr. Sharpe at Cambridge. It was 
the only one known in England at that time. Dr. Heber- 
den procured it ; and several curious experiments were made 
and verified with it. In this instance, it is obvious that we 
admire the retentive, local memory of Dr. Heberden, merely 
because it became recollective and useful. Had the tourma- 
lin never been wanted, it would have been a matter of indif- 
ference, whether the direction for it at Dr. Sharpe's at Cam- 
bridge, had been remembered or forgotten. There was a 
manf who undertook, in going from Temple Bar to the fur- 
thest part of Cheapside and back again, to enumerate at his 
return every sign on each side of the way in its order, and to 
repeat them, if it should be required, either backwards, or 
forwards. This he exactly accomplished. As a playful trial 
of memory, this affords us a moment's entertainment ; but if 
we were to be serious upon the subject, we should say it was 
a pity that the man did not use his extraordinary memory 
for some better purpose. The late king of Prussia, when he 
intended to advance Trenck in the army, upon his first intro- 
duction, gave him a list of the strangest names which could be 
picked out, to learn by rote. Trenck learned them quickly, 

* Priestley on Electricity, page 317. 

t Fuller, author of the Worthies of England. See Curiosities of Literature, 
vol. 1. 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 349 

and the king was much pleased with this instance of his mem- 
ory ; but Frederick would certainly never have made such a 
trial of the abilities of Voltaire. 

We cannot always foresee what facts may be useful, and 
what may be useless to us, otherwise the cultivation of the 
memory might be conducted by unerring rules. In the com- 
mon business of life, people regulate their memories by the 
circumstances in which they happen to be placed. A clerk 
in a counting house, by practice, learns to remember the cir- 
cumstances, affairs, and names of numerous merchants, of his 
master's customers, the places of their abode, and, perhaps, 
something of their peculiar humours and manners. A fine 
lady remembers her visiting list, and, perhaps, the dresses and 
partners of every couple at a crowded ball ; she finds all 
these particulars a useful supply for daily conversation, she 
therefore remembers them with care. An amateur, who is 
ambitious to shine in the society of literary men, collects lit- 
erary anecdotes, and retails them whenever occasion permits. 
Men of sense, who cultivate their memories for useful purpos- 
es, are not obliged to treasure up heterogeneous facts : by 
reducing particulars to general principles, and by connecting 
them with proper associations, they enjoy all the real advan- 
tages, whilst they are exempt from the labour of accumula- 
tion. 

Mr. Stewart has, with so much ability, pointed out the ef- 
fects of systematic arrangement of writing, reading, and the 
use of technical contrivances in the cultivation of the mem- 
ory, that it would be a presumptuous and unnecessary at- 
tempt to expatiate in other words upon the same subject. It 
may not be useless, however, to repeat a few of his observa- 
tions, because, in considering what further improvement may 
be made, it is always essential to have fully in our view what 
is already known. 

" Philosophic arrangement assists the memory, by classing 
under a few principles, a number of apparently dissimilar and 
unconnected particulars. The habit, for instance, of attend- 
ing to the connexion of cause and effect, presents a multitude 
of interesting analogies to the minds of men of science, which 
escape other persons ; the vulgar feel no pleasure in contem- 
plating objects that appear remote from common life ; and 
they find it extremely difficult to remember observations and 
reasonings which are foreign to their customary course of as- 
sociated ideas. Even literary and ingenious people, when 
they begin to learn any art or science, usually complain that 
their memory is not able to retain all the terms and ideas 
which pour in upon them with perplexing rapidity. In time, 
this difficulty is conquered, not so much by the strength of the 
memory, as by the exercise of judgment : they learn to dis- 



350 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

tinguish, and select the material terms, facts and arguments, 
from those that are subordinate, and they class them under 
general heads, to relieve the memory from all superfluous la- 
bour. 

In all studies, there is some prevalent associating principle, 
which gradually becomes familiar to our minds, but which we 
do not immediately discover in our first attempts. In poetry, 
resemblance ; in philosophy, cause and effect ; in mathemat- 
ics, demonstrations continually recur ; and, therefore, each is 
expected by persons who have been used to these respective 
studies. 

" The habit of committing our knowledge to writing, assists 
the memory, because, in writing, we detain certain ideas long 
enough in our view to perceive all their relations ; we use fix- 
ed and abbreviated signs for all our thoughts ; with the assist- 
ance of these, we can prevent confusion in our reasonings. 
We can, without fatigue, by the help of words, letters, figures, 
or algebraic signs, go through a variety of mental processes, 
and solve many difficult problems, which, without such assist- 
ance, must have been too extensive for our capacities. 

" If our books be well chosen, and if we read with discrim- 
ination and attention, reading will improve the memory, be- 
cause, as it increases our knowledge, it increases our interest 
in every new discovery, and in every new combination of 
ideas." 

We agree entirely with Mr. Stewart in his observations up- 
on technical helps to the memory ; they are hurtful to the un- 
derstanding, *because they break the general habits of philo- 
sophic order in the mind. There is no connexion of ideas 
between the memorial lines, for instance, in Grey's Memoria 
Technica, the history of the Kings or Emperors, and the 
dates that we wish to remember. However, it may be ad- 
vantageous in education to use such contrivances, to assist our 
pupils, in remembering those technical parts of knowledge, 
which are sometimes valued above their worth in society. 

The facts upon which the principles of any science are 
founded, should never be learnt by rote in a technical manner. 
But the names and the dates of the reigns of a number of 
kings and emperors, if they must be remembered by chil- 
dren, should be learnt in the manner which may give them 
the least trouble.* 

It is commonly asserted, that our memory is to be improved 
by exercise ; exercise may be of different kinds, and we 
must determine what sort is best. Repetition is found to fix 
words, and sometimes ideas, strongly in the mind ; the words 



V. Chapter on Books, and on Geography. 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 351 

of the burden of a song, which we have frequently heard, 
are easily and long remembered. When we want to get any 
thing by rote, we repeat it over and over again, till the sounds 
seem to follow one another habitually, and then we say we 
have them perfectly by rote.* The regular recurrence of 
sounds, at stated intervals, much assists us. In poetry, the 
rhymes, the cadence, the alliteration, the peculiar structure of 
the poet's lines, aids us. All these are mechanical helps to 
the memory. Repetition seems much more agreeable to some 
people than to others ; but it may be doubted whether a fa- 
cility and propensity to repetition be favourable to rational 
memory. Whilst we repeat, we exclude all thought from the 
mind ; we form a habit of saying certain sounds in a certain 
order ; but if this habit be afterwards broken by any trifling 
external circumstances, we lose all our labour. We have no 
means of recollecting what we have learned in this manner. 
Once gone, it is gone for ever. It depends but upon one prin- 
ciple of association. Those who exert ingenuity as well as 
memory in learning by heart, may not, perhaps, associate 
sounds with so much expedition, but they will have the power 
of recollection in a greater degree. They will have more 
chances in their favour, besides the great power of volun- 
tary exertion : a power which few passive repeaters ever pos- 
sess. The following lines are easily learned : 

"• Haste, then, ye spirits ; to your charge repair, 
The fluttering fan be Zephyretta's care ; 
The drops to thee, Brillante we consign, 
And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine ; 
Do thou, Crispissa, tend her favourite lock, 
Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock." 

To a person who merely learned the sounds in these lines 
by rote, without knowing the sense of the words, all the 
advantage of the appropriated names and offices of the sylphs 
would be lost. No one, who has any sense of propriety, can 
call these sylphs by wrong names, or put them out of their 
places. Momentilla and the watch, Zephyretta and the fan, 
Crispissa and the lock of hair, Brillante and the diamond 
drops, are so intimately associated, that they necessarily re- 
cur together in the memory. The following celebrated lines 
on envy, some people will find easy, and others difficult, to 
learn by heart : 

" Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue ; 
But, like a shadow, proves the substance true; 
For envy'd wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known 
Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own. 

* Dr. Darwin. Zoonomia. 



352 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

When first that sun too pow'rful beams displays, 
It draws up vapour, which obscures its rays ; 
But ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way, 
Reflect new glories, and augment the day." 

The flow of these lines is not particularly easy ; those who 
trust merely to the power of reiteration in getting them by 
rote, will find the task difficult ; those who seize the ideas, 
will necessarily recollect their order, and the sense will con- 
duct them to their proper places with certainty ; they cannot, 
for instance, make the clouds adorn the sun's rays before the 
sun's powerful beams have drawn up the vapours. This fixes 
the place of the four last lines. The simile of merit and the 
sun, and envy and the clouds, keeps each idea in its order ; if 
any one escapes, it is easily missed, and easily recalled. 

We seldom meet with those who can give us an accurate 
account of their own thoughts ; it is, therefore, difficult to tell 
the different ways in which different people manage their 
memory. We judge by the effects frequently, that causes 
are the same, which sometimes are entirely different. Thus, 
we, in common conversation, should say, that two people had 
an equally good memory, who could repeat with equal exact- 
ness any thing which they had heard or read. But in their 
methods of remembering, these persons might differ essential- 
ly ; the one might have exerted much more judgment and in- 
genuity in the conduct of his memory than the other, and 
might thus have not only fatigued himself less, but might have 
improved his understanding, whilst the other learned merely 
by rote. When Dr. Johnson reported the parliamentary de- 
bates for the Gentleman's Magazine, his judgment, his habit 
of attending to the order in which ideas follow one another in 
reasoning, his previous knowledge of the characters and style 
of the different speakers, must considerably have assisted his 
memory. His taste for literary composition must have shown 
him instantly where any argument or allusion was misplaced. 
A connecting phrase, or a link in a chain of reasoning, is 
missed as readiiy by a person used to writing and argument, 
as a word in a line of poetry is missed by a poetic ear. If 
any thing has escaped the memory of persons who remember 
by general classification, they are not only by their art able 
to discover that something is missing, but they have a general 
direction where to find it ; they know to what class of ideas 
it must belong; they can hunt from generals to particulars, 
till they are sure at last of tracing and detecting the deserter ; 
they have certain signs by which they know the object of 
which they are in search, and they trust with more certainty 
to these characteristics, than to the mere vague recollection 
of having seen it before. We feel disposed to trust the mem- 
ory of those who can give us some reason for what they re- 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 353 

member. If they can prove to us that their assertion could 
not, consistently with other facts, be false, we admit the asser- 
tion into the rank of facts, and their judgment thus goes 
surety for their memory. 

The following advertisement (taken from the Star of the 
21st September, 1796) may show that experience justifies 
these theoretic notions : 

" LITERATURE. 

" A gentleman capable of reporting the debates in parlia- 
ment, is wanted for a London newspaper. A business of no 
such great difficulty as is generally imagined by those un- 
acquainted with it. A tolerable good style and facility of 
composition, as well as a facility of writing, together with a 
good memory (not an extraordinary one) are all the necessary 
requisites. If a gentleman writes short hand, it is an advan- 
tage ; but memory and composition are more important. 

" The advertiser, conceiving that many gentlemen either in 
London or at the Universities, or in other parts of the king- 
dom, may think such a situation desirable, takes this public 
method of enabling them to obtain it. , The salary, which 
will vary according to the talents of the reporter, will at 
least afford a genteel subsistence, and the business need not 
interrupt the pursuit of studies necessary for a more impor- 
tant pofession. A gentleman who has never tried parliamentary 
reporting, will be preferred by the advertiser, because he has ob- 
served, that those who have last attempted it, are now the best 
reporters." 

In the common mode of education, great exactness of rep- 
etition is required from pupils. This seems to be made a 
matter of too much importance. There are circumstances in 
life, in which this talent is useful, but its utility, perhaps, we 
shall find, upon examination, is over-rated. 

In giving evidence of words, dates, and facts, in a court of 
justice, the utmost precision is requisite. The property, 
lives, and characters of individuals depend upon this precis- 
ion. 

But we must observe, that after long detailed evidence has 
been given by a number of witnesses, an advocate separates 
the material from the immaterial circumstances, and the judge 
in his charge again compresses the arguments of the counsel, 
so that much of what has been said during the trial, might as 
well have been omitted. All these surperfluous ideas were re- 
membered to no purpose. An evidence sometimes, if he be per- 
mitted, would tell not only all that he remembers of the circum- 
stances about which he is examined, but also a number of 
other circumstances, which are casually associated with these 
45 



854 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

in his memory. An able advocate rejects, by a quickness 
of judgment which appears like intuition, all that is irrele- 
vant to his argument and his cause ; and it is by this selec- 
tion that his memory, in the evidence, perhaps, of twenty 
different people, is able to retain all that is useful. When this 
heterogeneous mass of evidence is classed by his perspicuous 
arrangement, his audience feel no difficulty either in under- 
standing or recollecting all which had before appeared con- 
fused. Thus the exercise of the judgment saves much of the 
labour of memory ; labour which is not merely unnecesar} 7 , 
but hurtful, to our understanding. 

In making observations upon subjects which are new to us. 
we must be content to use our memory unassisted at first by 
our reason ; we must treasure up the ore and rubbish together, 
because we cannot immediately distinguish them from each 
other. But the sooner we can separate them, the better. In 
the beginning of all experimental sciences, a number of use- 
less particulars are recorded, because they are not known to 
be useless ; when, from comparing these, a few general prin- 
ciples are discovered, the memory is immediately relieved, 
the judgment and inventive faculty have power and liberty to 
work, and then a rapid progress and great discoveries are 
made. It is the misfortune of those who first cultivate new 
sciences, that their memory is overloaded ; but if those who 
succeed to them, submit to the same senseless drudgery, it is 
not their misfortune, but their fault. Let us look over the his- 
tory of those who have made discoveries and inventions, we 
shall perceive, that it has been by rejecting useless ideas that 
they have first cleared their way to truth. Dr. Priestley's 
Histories of Vision and of Electricity, are as useful when we 
consider them as histories of the human mind, as when we 
read them as histories of science. Dr. Priestley has publish- 
ed a catalogue of books,* from which he gathered his mate- 
rials. The pains, he tells us, that it cost him to compress and 
abridge the accounts which ingenious men have given of their 
own experiments, teach us how much our progress in real 
knowledge depends upon rejecting all that is superfluous. 
When Simonides offered to teach Themistocles the art of 
memory, Themistocles answered, " Rather teach me the art 
of forgetting; for I find that I remember much that I had bet- 
ter forget, and forget" (consequently) " some things which 1 
wish to remember." 

When any discovery or invention is completed, we are fre- 
quently astonished at its obvious simplicity. The ideas ne- 
cessary to the discovery, are seldom so numerous as to fa- 

* At the end of the History of Vision. 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 355 

tigue our memory. Memory seems to have been useful to in- 
ventors only as it presented a few ideas in a certain happy 
connexion, as it presented them faithfully and distinctly to 
view in the proper moment. If we wish for examples of the 
conduct of the understanding, we need only look into Dr. 
Franklin's works. He is so free from all affectation, he lays 
his mind so fairly before us, that he is, perhaps, the best ex- 
ample we can select. Those who are used to look at objects 
in a microscope, say, that full as much depends upon the ob- 
ject's being well prepared for inspection, as upon the attention 
of the observer, or the excellence of the glass. 

The first thing that strikes us, in looking over Dr. Frank- 
lin's works, is the variety of his observations upon different 
subjects. We might imagine, that a very tenacious and pow- 
erful memory was necessary to register all these; but Dr. 
Franklin informs us, that it was his constant practice to note 
down every hint as it occurred to him : he urges his friends 
to do the same ; he observes, that there is scarcely a day 
passes without our hearing or seeing something which, if 
properly attended to, might lead to useful discoveries. By 
thus committing his ideas to writing, his mind was left at liber- 
ty to think. No extraordinary effort of memory was> even 
upon the greatest occasions, requisite. A friend wrote to him 
to inquire how he was led to his great discovery of the iden- 
tity of lightning and electricity ; and how he first came to 
think of drawing down lightning from the clouds. Dr. Frank- 
lin replies, that he could not answer better than by giving an 
extract from the minutes he used to keep of the experiments 
he made, with memorandums of such as he purposed to make, 
the reasons for making them, and the observations that rose 
upon them. By this extract, says Dr. Franklin, you will see 
that the thought was not so much an out of the way one, but 
that it might have occurred to any electrician.* 

When the ideas are arranged in clear order, as we see them 
in this note, the analogy or induction to which Dr. Franklin 
was led, appears easy. Why, then, had it never been made 
by any other person 1 Numbers of ingenious men were at this 
time intent upon electricity. The ideas which were necessa- 
ry to this discovery, were not numerous or complicated. We 

* " Nov. 7, 1749. Electrical fluid agrees with lightning' in these particu- 
lars. 1. Giving light. 2. Colour of the light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. 
Swift motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack or noise in explod- 
ing 1 . 7. Subsisting in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. 
Destroying animals. 10. Melting- metals. 11. Firing inflammable substan- 
ces. 12. Sulphureous smell. The electric fluid is attracted by points. We 
do not know whether this property is in lightning. But since they agree in 
all the particulars wherein we can already compare them, is it not probable 
they agree likewise in this ? Let the experiment be made." 

Dr. Franklin's Letters, page 322. 



35(i PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

may remark, that one analogy connecting these observations 
together, they are more easily recollected ; and their being 
written down for a particular purpose, on which Dr. Frank- 
lin's mind was intent, must have made it still easier to him to 
retain them. 

The degree of memory he was forced to employ, is thus re- 
duced to a portion in which few people are defective. Now, 
let us suppose, that Dr. Franklin, at the time he wrote his 
memorandum, had fully in his recollection every previous ex- 
periment that had ever been tried on electricity ; and not on- 
ly these, but the theories, names, ages, and private history, of 
all the men who had tried these experiments ; of what ad- 
vantage would this have been to him ? He must have exclud- 
ed all these impertinent ideas successively as they rose be- 
fore him, and he must have selected the fifteen useful obser- 
vations, which we have mentioned, from this troublesome 
multitude. The chance in such a selection would have been 
against him ; the time employed in the examination and re- 
jection of all the unnecessary recollections, would have been 
absolutely wasted. 

We must wish that it were in our power, when we make 
observations upon nature, or when we read the reflections of 
others, to arrange our thoughts so as to be ready when we 
want to reason or invent. When cards are dealt to us, we 
can sort our hand according to the known probabilities of the 
game, and a new arrangement is easily made when we hear 
what is trumps. 

In collecting and sorting observations, Dr. Franklin partic- 
ularly excelled ; therefore we may safely continue to take 
him for our example. Wherever he happened to be, in a 
boat, in a mine, in a printer's shop, in a crowded city, or in 
the country, in Europe or America, he displays the same ac- 
tivity of observation. When any thing, however trifling, struck 
him which he could not account for, he never rested till he 
had traced the effect to its cause. Thus, after having made 
one remark, he had fresh motive to collect facts, either to 
confirm or refute an hypothesis ; his observations tending 
consequently to some determinate purpose, they were arrang- 
ed in the moment they were made, in the most commodious 
manner, both for his memory and invention ; they were ar- 
ranged either according to their obvious analogies, or their 
relation to each other as cause and effect. He had two use- 
ful methods of judging of the value of his own ideas; he 
either considered how r they could be immediately applied to 
practical improvements in the arts, or how they could lead to 
the solution of any of the great problems in science. Here 
we must again observe, that judgment saved the labour of 
memory. A person who sets about to collect facts at random, 



MEMORY AND INTENTION. 357 

is little better than a magpie, who picks up and lays by any 
odd bits of money he can light upon, without knowing their 
use. 

Miscellaneous observations, which are made by those who 
have no philosophy, may accidentally lead to something use- 
ful ; but here we admire the good fortune, and not the genius, 
of the individuals who make such discoveries : these are 
prizes drawn from the lottery of science, which ought not to 
seduce us from the paths of sober industry. How long may 
an observation, fortunately made, continue to be useless to 
mankind, merely because it has not been reasoned upon! 
The trifling observation, that a straight stick appears bent in 
water, was made many hundred years before the reason of 
that appearance was discovered ! The invention of the tele- 
scope might have been made by any person who could have 
pursued this slight observation through all its consequences. 

Having now defined, or rather described, what we mean 
by a good memory, we may consider how the memory should 
be cultivated, in children, as well as in men, the strength of 
that habit, or perhaps of that power of the mind which asso- 
ciates ideas together, varies considerably. It is probable, 
that this difference may depend sometimes upon organization. 
A child who is born with any defect in his eyes, cannot pos- 
sibly have the same pleasure in objects of sight, which those 
enjoy who have strong eyes : ideas associated w T ith these ex- 
ternal objects, are, therefore, not associated with pleasure, 
and, consequently, they are not recollected with any sensa- 
tions of pleasure. An ingenious writer* supposes, that all the 
difference of capacity amongst men ultimately depends on 
their original power of feeling pleasure or pain, and their con- 
sequent different habits of attention. 

When there is any defect in a child's organization, we must 
have recourse to physics, and not to metaphysics ; but even 
among children, who are apparently in the full possession of all 
their senses, we see very different degrees of vivacity : those 
who have most vivacity, seldom take delight in repeating their 
ideas ; they are more pleased with novelty than prone to habit. 
Those children who are deficient in vivacity, are much dispo- 
sed to tne easy indolent pleasure of repetition ; it costs them 
less exertion to say or do the same thing over again, than to 
attempt any thing new ; they are uniformly good subjects to 
habit, because novelty has no charms to seduce their attention. 

The education of the memory in these two classes of chil- 
dren, ought not to be the same. Those who are disposed to 
repetition, should not be indulged in it, because it will in- 
crease their indolence ; they should be excited by praise, by 

*Helvetius, " Sur rEsprit." 



358 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 

example, by sympathy, and by all the strongest motives that 
we can employ. Their interest in every thing around them 
must by all means be increased : when they show eagerness 
about any thing, no matter what it is, we may then exercise 
their memory upon that subject with some hopes of success. 
It is of importance that they should succeed in their first 
trials, otherwise they will be discouraged from repeating their 
attempts, and they will distrust their own memory in future. 
The fear of not remembering, will occupy, and agitate, and 
weaken their minds; they should, therefore, be animated by 
hope. If they fail, at all events let them not be reproached ; 
the mortification they naturally feel, is sufficient : nor should 
they be left to dwell upon their disappointment; they should 
have a fresh and easier trial given to them, that they may re- 
cover their own self-complacency as expeditiously as possi- 
ble. It may be said, that there are children of such a slug- 
gish temperament, that they feel no pleasure in success, and 
no mortification in perceiving their own mental deficiencies. 
There are few children of this description; scarcely any, 
perhaps, whose defects have not been increased by educa- 
tion. Exertion has been made so painful to them, that at 
length they have sunk into apathy, or submitted in despair to 
the eternal punishment of shame. 

The mistaken notion, that the memory must be exercised 
only in books, has been often fatal to the pupils of literary 
people. We remember best those things which interest us 
most ; which are useful to us in conversation ; in our daily 
business or amusement. So do children. On these things 
we should exercise their memory. Tell a boy who has lost 
his top, to remember at such a particular time to put you in 
mind of it, and if he does, that you will give him another, he 
will probably remember your requests after this, better than 
you will yourself. Affectionate children will easily extend 
their recollective memories in the service of their friends and 
companions. " Put me in mind to give your friend what he 
asked for, and I will give it to him if you remember it at the 
right time." It will be best to manage these affairs so that con- 
venience, and not caprice, shall appear to be your motive for 
the requests. The time and place should be precisely fixed, 
and something should be chosen which is likely to recall your 
request at the appointed time. If you say, put me in mind of 
such a thing the moment the cloth is taken away after din- 
ner; or as soon as candles are brought into the room; or 
when I go by such a shop in our walk this evening; here are 
things mentioned which will much assist the young remem- 
brancer: the moment the cloth is taken away, or the candles 
come, he will recollect, from association, that something is to 



MEMORY AND INVENTION, 359 

be done, that he has something to do ; and presently he will 
make out what that something is. 

A good memory for business depends upon local, well ar- 
ranged associations. The man of business makes an artificial 
memory for himself out of the trivial occurrences of the day, 
and the hours as they pass recall their respective occupations. 
Children can acquire these habits very early in their educa- 
tion ; they are eager to give their companions an account of 
any thing they have seen or heard; their tutors should be- 
come their companions, and encourage them by sympathy to 
address these narrations to them. Children who forget their 
lessons in chronology, and-their pence tables, can relate with 
perfect accuracy any circumstances which have interested 
themselves. This shows that there is no deficiency in their 
capacity. Every one who has had any experience of the 
pleasure of talking, knows how intimately it is connected with 
the pleasure of being listened to. The auditors, consequent- 
ly, possess supreme power over narrative childhood, without 
using any artifice, by simply showing attention to well arrang- 
ed, and well recollected narratives, and ceasing to attend 
when the young orator's memory and story become confused, 
he will naturally be excited to arrange his ideas. The order 
of time is the first and easiest principle of association to help 
the memory. This, till young people acquire the ideas of 
cause and effect, will be their favourite mode of arrangement. 
Things that happen at the same time ; things that are said, 
thoughts that have occurred, at the same time, will recur to 
the mind together. We may observe, that ill educated peo- 
ple continue through life to remember things by this single as- 
sociation ; and, consequently, there is a heterogeneous collec- 
tion of ideas in their mind, which have no rational connexion 
with each other; crowds which have accidentally met, and 
are forced to live forever together. 

A vulgar evidence, when he is examined about his memory 
of a particular fact, gives as a reason for his remembering it, 
a relation of a number of other circumstances, which he tells 
you happened at the same time; or he calls to witness any 
animate or inanimate objects, which he happened to see at 
the same time. All these things are so joined with the prin- 
cipal fact in his mind, that his remembering them distinctly, 
seems to him, and he expects will seem to others, demonstra- 
tion of the truth and accuracy of his principal assertion. 
When a lawyer tells him he has nothing to do with these 
ideas, he is immediately at a stand in his narrative; he can 
recollect nothing, he is sure of nothing; he has no reason to 
give for his belief, unless he may say that it was Michaelmas- 
day when such a thing happened, that he had a goose for din- 
ner that day, or that he had a mew wig. Those who have 



360 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

more enlarged minds, seldom produce these strange reasons 
for remembering facts. Indeed, no one can reason clearly, 
whose memory has these foolish habits; the ill matched ideas 
are inseparably joined, and hence they imagine there is some 
natural connexion between them. Hence arise those obsti- 
nate prejudices which no arguments can vanquish. 

To prevent children from arguing ill, we must, therefore, 
take care, in exercising their memory, to discourage them in 
this method of proving that they remember one thing by tell- 
ing us a number of others which happened at the same time ; 
rather let them be excited to bring their reasoning faculty in- 
to play in support of their memory. Suppose, for instance, 
that a child had mislaid his hat, and was trying to recollect 
where he had put it. He first may recollect, from the asso- 
ciation of time, that he had the hat the last time he went out; 
but when he wants to recollect when that time was, he had 
better go back, if he can, to his motive for going out: this one 
idea will bring a number of others in right order into his 
mind. He went out, suppose, to fetch his kite, which he was 
afraid would be wet by a shower of rain ; then the boy re- 
collects that his hat must have been wet by the same rain, 
and that when he came in, instead of hanging it up in its usu- 
al place, it was put before the fire to be dried. What fire, is 
the next question, &c. 

Such an instance as this may appear very trivial ; but chil- 
dren whose minds are well managed about trifles, will retain 
good habits when they are to think about matters of conse- 
quence. By exercising the memory in this manner about 
things, instead of about books and lessons, we shall not dis- 
gust and tire our pupils, nor shall we give the false notion, 
that all knowledge is acquired by reading. 

Long before children read fluently for their own amuse- 
ment, they like to hear others read aloud to them, because 
they have then the entertainment without the labour. We 
may exercise their memory by asking for an account of what 
they have heard. But let them never be required to, repeat 
in the words of the book, or even to preserve the same ar- 
rangement;- let them speak in words of their own, and arrange 
their ideas to their own plan ; this will exercise at once their 
judgment, invention, and memory. 

" Try if you can explain to me w r hat I have just been ex- 
plaining to you," a sensible tutor will frequently say to his 
pupils ; and he will suffer them to explain in a different man- 
ner from himself; he will only require them to remember 
what is essential to the explanation. In such repetitions as 
these, the mind is active, therefore it will strengthen and im- 
prove. 

Children are all, more or less, pleased with the perception 
of resemblances and of analogy. This propensity assists us 



Memory and invention. 361 

much in the cultivation of the memory ; but it must be manag- 
ed with discretion, or it will injure the other powers of the un- 
derstanding. There is, in some minds, a futile love of tracing 
analogies, which leads to superstition, to false reasoning, and 
false taste. The quick perception of resemblances is, in oth- 
er minds, productive of wit, poetic genius, and scientific in- 
vention. The difference between these two classes, depends 
upon this — the one has more judgment, and more the habit 
of using it, than the other. Children who are pleased by 
trifling coincidences, by allusions, and similitudes, should be 
taught with great care to reason : when once they perceive 
the pleasure of demonstration, they will not be contented with 
the inaccuracy of common analogies. A tutor is often tempt- 
ed to teach pupils, who are fond of allusions, by means of 
them, because he finds that they remember well whatever 
suits their taste for resemblances. By following the real ana- 
logies between different arts and sciences, and making use of 
the knowledge children have on one subject to illustrate 
another, we may at once amuse their fancy, and cultivate 
their memory with advantage. Ideas laid up in this manner, 
will recur in the same order, and will be ready for further 
use. When two ideas are remembered by their mutual con- 
nexion, surely it is best that they should both of them be 
substantially useful ; and not that one should attend merely 
to answer for the appearance of the other. 

As men readily remember those things which are every 
day useful to them in business, what relates to their amuse- 
ments, or to their favourite tastes in arts, sciences, or litera- 
ture ; so children find no difficulty in remembering every 
thing which mixes daily with their little pleasures. They 
value knowledge, which is useful and agreeable to them, as 
highly as we do ; but they consider only the present, and we 
take the future into our estimate. Children feel no interest 
in half the things that are committed, with the most solemn 
recommendations, to the care of their memory. It is in vain 
to tell them, " You must remember such a thing, because it 
will be useful to you when you grow up to be a man." The 
child feels like a child, and has no idea of what he may feel 
when he grows up to be a man. He tries to remember what 
he is desired, perhaps, because he wishes to please his wiser 
friends ; but if the ideas are remote from his every day bu- 
siness, if nothing recall them but voluntary exertion, and if he 
be obliged to abstract his little soul from every thing it holds 
dear, before he can recollect his lessons, they will have no 
hold upon his memory, he will feel that recollection is too 
operose, and he will enjoy none of the " pleasures of memo- 
ry." 

16 



3G2 rnuricAL education. 

To induce children to exercise their memory, we must 
put them in situations where they may be immediately re- 
warded for their exertion. We must create an interest in 
their minds — nothing uninteresting is long remembered. In 
a large and literary family, it will not be difficult to invent oc- 
cupations for children which may exercise all their faculties. 
Even the conversation of such a family will create in their 
minds a desire for knowledge ; what they hear, will recall to 
their memory what they read : and if they are encouraged to 
take a reasonable share in conversation, they will acquire the 
habit of listening to every thing that others say. By permit- 
ting children to talk freely of what they read, we are more 
likely to improve their memory for books, than by exacting 
from them formal repetitions of lessons. 

Dr. Johnson, who is said to have had an uncommonly good 
memory, tells us, that when he was a boy, he used, after he 
had acquired any fresh knowledge from his books, to run and 
tell it to an old woman, of whom he was very fond. This ex- 
ercise was so agreeable to him, that it imprinted what he read 
upon his memory. 

La Gaucherie, one of the preceptors of Henry IV. having 
found that he had to do with a young prince of an impatient 
mind, and active genius, little suited to sedentary studies, in- 
stead of compelling his pupil to read, taught him by means of 
conversation : anecdotes of heroes, and the wise sayings of 
ancient philosophers, were thus imprinted upon the mind of 
this prince. It is said, that Henry IV. applied, in his subse- 
quent life, all the knowledge he had acquired in this manner 
so happily, that learned men were surprised at his memory.* 
By these observations we by no means would insinuate, 
that application to books is unnecessary. We are sensible 
that accurate knowledge upon any subject, cannot be acquir- 
ed by superficial conversation ; that it can be obtained only 
by patient application. But we mean to point out, that an 
early taste for literature may be excited in children by con- 
versation ; and that their memory should be first cultivated 
in the manner which will give them the least pain. When 
there is motive for application, and when habits of industry 
have been gradually acquired, we may securely trust, that 
our pupils will complete their own education. Nor should we 
have reason to fear, that those who have a good memory for 
all other things, should not be able to retain all that is worth 
remembering in books. Children should never be praised 
for merely remembering exactly what they read, they should 
be praised for selecting with good sense what is best worth 



See preface to L'Esprit des Roraains coasidere 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 36 -o 

their attention, and for applying what they remember to use- 
ful purposes. 

We have observed how much the habit of inventing in- 
creases the wish for knowledge, and increases the interest 
men take in a number of ideas, which are indifferent to un- 
cultivated and indolent people. It is the same with children. 
Children who invent, exercise their memory with pleasure, 
from the immediate sense of utility and success. A piece of 
knowledge which they lay by in their minds, with the hopes 
of making use of it in some future invention, they have more 
motives for remembering, than what they merely learn by 
rote, because they are commanded to do so by the voice of 
authority. 

(June 19th, 1796.) S , a boy of nine years old, of good 

abilities, was translating Ovid's description of envy. When 
he came to the Latin word suffusa, he pronounced it as if it 
had been spelled with a single /and a double s, sufussa; he 
made the same mistake several times : at last his father, to 
try whether it would make him remember the right pronunci- 
ation, desired him to repeat suffusa forty times. The boy 
did so. About three hours afterwards, the boy was asked 
whether he recollected the word which he had repeated for- 
ty times. No, he said, he did not ; but he remembered that 
it meant diffused. His father recalled the word to his mind, 
by asking him what letter it was that he had sounded as if it 
had been a double letter; he said s. And what double letter- 
did you sound as if it had been single? /, said the boy. 
Then, said his father, you have found out that it was a word 
in which there was a double ff&nd a single s, and that it is 
the Latin for diffused. Oh, suffusa, said the boy. 

This boy, who had such difficulty in learning a single La- 
tin word, by repeating it forty times, showed in other instan- 
ces, that he was by no means deficient in recollective memo- 
ry. On the contrary, though he read very little, and seldom 
learned any thing by rote, he applied happily any thing that 
he read or heard in conversation. 

(March 31st, 1796.) His father told him, that he had this 
morning seen a large horn at a gentleman's in the neighbour- 
hood. It was found thirty spades depth below the surface of 
the earth, in a bog. With the horn was found a carpet, and 
wrapped up in the carpet a lump of tallow. " Now," said his 
father, "how could that lump of tallow come there? Qr was 
it tallow, do you think? Or what could it be?" 

H (a boy of 14, brother to S ) said, he thought it 

might have been buried by some robbers, after they had com- 
mitted some robbery ; he thought the lump was tallow. 

S -said, "Perhaps some dead bodv might have been 



364 FKACTICAL EDUCATION. 

"wrapped up in the carpet and buried ; and the dead body 
might have turned into tallow."* 

" How came you," said his father, " to think of a dead bo- 
dy's turning into tallow ?" 

" You told me," said the boy, " You read to me, I mean, 
an account of some dead bodies that had been buried a great 
many years, which had turned into tallow." 

" Spermaceti," you mean ? " Yes." 

S- had heard the account he alluded to above two 

months before this time. No one in company recollected it 
except himself, though several had heard it. 

Amongst the few things which S had learnt by heart, 

was the Hymn to Adversity. A very slight circumstance 
may show, that he did not get this poem merely as a tiresome 
lesson, as children sometimes learn by rote what, they do not 
understand, and which they never recollect except in the ar- 
duous moments of formal repetition. 

A few days after S had learned the Hymn to Adver- 
sity, he happened to hear his sister say to a lady, " I observ- 
ed you pitied me for having had a whitlow on my finger, more 
than any body else did, because you have had one yourself." 

S 's father asked him why he smiled. " Because," said 

S , " I was thinking of the sor?g,t the hymn to adversity ; 

'•' And from her own, she learned to melt at other's wo." 

A recollective memory of books appears early in children 
who are not overwhelmed with them; if the impressions made 
upon their minds be distinct, they will recur with pleasure 
to the memory when similar ideas are presented. 

July 1796. S heard his father read Sir Brook Booth- 

by's excellent epitaph upon Algernon Sidney ; the following 
lines pleased the boy particularly : 

'•' Approach, contemplate this immortal name, 
Swear on this shrine to emulate his fame ; 
To dare, like him, e'en to thy latest breath, 
Contemning- chains, and poverty, and death." 

S 's father asked him why he liked these lines, and 

whether they put him in mind of any thing that he had heard 
before. S — — said, " It puts me in mind of Harnilcar's 
making his son Hannibal swear to hate the Romans, and love 
his countrymen eternally. But I like this much better. I 
think it was exceedingly foolish and wrong of Hamilcar to 
make his son swear always to hate the Romans." 

* See the account in the Monthly Review. 

t He had tried to sing it to the tune of C! Hope, thou muse of young- de- 
sire." 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 365 

Latin lessons are usually so very disagreeable to boys, that 
they seldom are pleased with any allusions to them ; but by 
good management in a tutor, even these lessons may be asso- 
ciated with agreeable ideas. Boys should be encouraged to 
talk and think about what they learn in Latin, as well as what 
they read in English ; they should be allowed to judge of the 
characters described in ancient authors, to compare them 
with our present ideas of excellence, and thus to make some 
use of their learning. It will then be not merely engraved 
upon their memory in the form of lessons, it will be mingled 
with their notions of life and manners ; it will occur to them 
when they converse, and when they act ; they will possess 
the admired talent for classicalallusion, as well as all the sol- 
id advantages of an unprejudiced judgment. It is not enough 
that gentlemen should be masters of the learned languages, 
they must know how to produce their knowledge without ped- 
antry or affectation. , The memory may in vain be stored 
with classical precedents, unless these can be brought into 
use in speaking or writing without the parade of dull citation, 
or formal introduction. " Sir," said Dr. Johnson, to some 
prosing tormentor, " I would rather a man would knock me 
down, than to begin to talk to me of the Punic wars." A 
public speaker, who rises in the House of Commons, with 
pedantry prepense to quote Latin or Greek, is coughed or 
laughed down ; but the beautiful unpremeditated classical al- 
lusions of Burke or Sheridan, sometimes conveyed in a single 
word, seize the imagination irresistibly. 

Since we perceive, that memory is chiefly useful as it fur- 
nishes materials for invention, and that invention can greatly 
abridge the mere labour of accumulation, we must examine 
how the inventive faculty can be properly exercised. The 
vague precept of, cultivate the memory and invention of 
young people at the same time, will not inform parents how 
this is to be accomplished ; we trust, therefore, that we may 
be permitted, contrary to the custom of didactic writers, to il- 
lustrate a general precept by a few examples ; and we take 
these examples from real life, because we apprehend, that 
fictions, however ingenious, will never advance the science of 
education so much as simple experiments. 

No elaborate theory of invention shall here alarm parents. 
It is a mistake, to suppose that the inventive faculty can be 
employed only on important subjects ; it can be exercised in 
the most trifling circumstances of domestic life. Scarcely 
any family can be so unfortunately situated, that they may 
not employ the ingenuity of their children without violent ex- 
ertion, or any grand apparatus. Let us only make use of the 
circumstances which happen every hour. Children are in- 
terested in every thing that is going forward. Building, or 



366 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

planting, or conversation, or reading ; they attend to every 
thing, and from every thing might they with a little assistance 
obtain instruction. Let their useful curiosity be encouraged ; 
let them make a part of the general society of the family, in- 
stead of being treated as if they had neither senses nor un- 
derstanding. When any thing is to be done, let them be ask- 
ed to invent the best way of doing it. When they see that 
their invention becomes immediately useful, they will take 
pleasure in exerting themselves. 

June 4th, 1796. A lady, who had been ruling pencil lines 
for a considerable time, complained of its being a tiresome 
operation ; and she wished that a quick and easy way of do- 
ing it could be invented. Somebody present said they had 
seen pens for ruling music books, which ruled four lines at a 
time ; and it was asked, whether a leaden rake could not be 
made to rule a sheet of paper at once. 

Mr. said, he thought such a pencil would not rule 

well ; and he called to S , (the same boy we mentioned 

before) and asked him if he could invent any method of do- 
ing the business better. S took about a quarter of an 

hour to consider ; and he then described a little machine for 
ruling a sheet of paper at a single stroke, which his father 
had executed for him. It succeeded well, and this success 
was the best reward he could have. 

Another day Mr. observed, that the maid, whose 

business it was to empty a bucket of ashes into an ash-hole, 
never could be persuaded to do it, because the ashes were 
blown against her face by the wind ; and he determined to 
invent a method which should make it convenient to her to do 
as she was desired. The maid usually threw the ashes into 
a heap on the sheltered side of a wall ; the thing to be done 
was, to make her put the bucket through a hole in this wall, 
and empty the ashes on the other side. This problem was 
given to all the children and grown up persons in the family. 
One of the children invented the shelf, which, they said, 
should be like part of the vane of a winnowing machine 
which they had lately seen ; the manner of placing this vane, 
another of the children suggested : both these ideas joined 
together, produced the contrivance which was wanted. 

A little model was made in wood of this bucket, which was 
a pretty toy. The thing itself was executed, and was found 
useful. 

June 8th, 1796. Mr. was balancing a pair of scales 

very exactly, in which he was going to weigh some opium ; 
this led to a conversation upon scales and weighing. Some 
one said that the dealers in diamonds must have very exact 
scales, as the difference of a grain makes such a great differ- 
ence in their value. S >was very attentive to this conver- 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 367 

sation. M told him, that jewellers always, if they can, 

buy diamonds when the air is light, and sell them when it is 

heavy. S did not understand the reason of this, till his 

father explained to him the general principles of hydrostatics, 
and showed him a few experiments with bodies of different 
specific gravity : these experiments were distinctly under- 
stood by every body present. The boy then observed, that 
it was not fair of the jewellers to buy and sell in this man- 
ner; they should not, said he, use these weights. Diamonds 
should be the weights. Diamonds should be weighed against 
diamonds. 

November, 1795. One day after dinner, the candles had 

been left for some time without being snuffed ; and Mr. 

said he wished candles could be made which would not re- 
quire snuffing. 

Mrs. ******** thought of cutting the wick into several 
pieces before it was put into the candle, that so, when it 

burned down to the divisions, the wick might fall off. M 

thought that the wick might be tied tight round at intervals, 
before it was put into the candle ; that when it burned down 
to the places where it was tied, it would snap off: but Mr. 

objected, that the candle would most likely go out when 

it had burned down to her knots. It was then proposed to 
send a stream of oxygene through the candle, instead of a 

wick. M asked if some substance might not be used for 

wicks which should burn into powder, and fly off or sublime. 

Mr. smiled at this, and said, " Some substance ; some 

kind of air ; some chemical mixture ! A person ignorant of 
chemistry always talks of, as an ignorant person in mechanics 
always says, " Oh, you can do it somehow with a spring." 

As the company could not immediately discover any way 
of making candles which should not require to be snuffed, 
they proceeded to invent ways of putting out a candle at a 
certain time without hands. The younger part of the com- 
pany had hopes of solving this problem, and every eye was 
attentively fixed upon the candle. 

"How would you put it out, S ?" said Mr. . 

S said, that if a weight a very little lighter than the ex- 
tinguisher, were tied to a string, and if the string were put 
over a pulley, and if the extinguisher were tied to the other 
end of the string, and the candle put exactly under the ex- 
tinguisher ; the extinguisher would move very, very gently 
down, and at last put out the candle. 

Mr. observed, that whilst it was putting out the can- 
dle, there would be a disagreeable smell, because the extin- 
guisher would be a considerable time moving very, very gently 
down, over the candle after the candle had begun to go out. 



368 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

C (a girl of twelve years old) spoke next. " I would 

tie an extinguisher to one end of a thread. I would put this 
string through a pulley fastened to the ceiling j the other end 
of this string should be fastened to the middle of another 
thread, which should be strained between two posts set upright 
on each side of the candle, so as that the latter string might 
lean against the candle at any distance you want below the 
flame. When the candle burns down to this string, it will 
burn it in two, and the extinguisher will drop upon the can- 
dle." 

This is the exact description of the weaver's alarm, mention- 
ed in the Philosophical Transactions which C had never 

seen or heard of. 

Mr. now showed us the patent extinguisher, which 

was much approved of by all the rival inventors. 

It is very useful to give children problems which have al- 
ready been solved, because they can immediately compare 
their own imperfect ideas with successful inventions, which 
have actually been brought into real use. We know before- 
hand what ideas are necessary to complete the invention, and 
whether the pupil has all the necessary knowledge. Though 
by the courtesy of poetry, a creative power is ascribed to in- 
ventive genius, yet we must be convinced that no genius can 
invent without materials. Nothing can come of nothing. In- 
vention is nothing more than the new combination of mate- 
rials. We must judge in general of the ease or difficulty of 
any invention, either by the number of ideas necessary to be 
combined, or by the dissimilarity or analogy of those ideas. 
In giving any problem to children, we should not only con- 
sider whether they know all that is necessary upon the sub- 
ject, but also, whether that knowledge is sufficiently familiar 
to their minds, whether circumstances are likely to recall it, 
and whether they have a perfectly clear idea of the thing to 
be done. By considering all these particulars, we may pretty 
nearly proportion our questions to the capacity of the pupil ; 
and we may lead his mind on step by step from obvious to 
intricate inventions. 

July 30th, 1796. L , who had just returned from Ed- 
inburgh, and had taken down in two large volumes, Dr. 
Black's Lectures, used to read to us part of them, for about 
a quarter of an hour, every morning after breakfast. He 
was frequently interrupted (which interruptions he bore with 
heroic patience) by Mr. — — 's explanations and comments. 
When he came to the expansive power of steam, and to the 
description of the different steam engines which have been 

invented, Mr. stopped to ask B , C , and S , 

to describe the steam engine in their own words. They all 
described it in such a manner as to show that, thev clearly 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 369 

understood the principle of the machine. Only the general 

principle had been explained to them. L , after having 

read the description of Savary's and Newcoraen's steam en- 
gines, was beginning to read the description of that invented 

by Mr. Watt ; but Mr. stopped him, that he might try 

whether any person present could invent it. Mr. E thus 

stated the difficulty : " In the old steam engine, cold water, 
you know, is thrown into the cylinder to condense the steam ; 
but in condensing the steam, the cold water at the same time 
cools the cylinder. Now the cylinder must be heated again, 
before it can be filled with steam ; for till it is heated, it will 
condense the steam. There is, consequently, a great waste 
of heat and fuel in the great cylinder. How can you con- 
dense the steam without cooling the cylinder?" 

S . " Let down a cold tin tube into the cylinder when 

you want to condense the steam, and draw it up again as soon 
as the steam is condensed ; or, if you could put a cylinder of 
ice up the great tube." 

Some of the company next asked, if an horizontal plate ol 
cold metal, made to slide up the inside of the cylinder, would 
condense the steam. The edges of the plate only would 
touch the cylinder ; the surface of the plate might condense 
the steam. 

" But," said Mr. , " how can you introduce and with- 
draw it ?" 

C (a girl of 12) then said, "I would put a cold vessel 

to condense the steam at the top of the cylinder." 

Mr. . " So as to touch the cylinder, do you mean ?" 

C . " No, not so as to touch the cylinder, but at some 

distance from it." 

Mr. . " Then the cold air would rush into the cylin- 
der whilst the steam was passing from the cylinder to your 
condenser." 

C . " But I would cover in the cold vessel, and I would 

cover in the passage to it." 

M -. " I have the pleasure of informing you, that you 

have invented part of the great Mr. Watt's improvement on 
the steam engine. You see how it facilitates invention, to 
begin by stating the difficulty clearly to the mind. This is . 
what every practical inventor does when he invents in me- 
chanics." 

L (smiling.) " And what I always do in inventing a 

mathematical demonstration." 

To the good natured reader we need offer no apology ; to 

the ill natured we dare attempt none, for introducing these 

detailed views of the first attempts of young invention. They 

are not exhibited as models, either to do honour to the tutor 

47 



370 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

or his pupils ; but simply to show, how the mind may be led 
from the easiest steps, to what are supposed to be difficult in 
education. By imagining ourselves to be in the same situa- 
tion with children, we may guess what things are difficult to 
them ; and if we can recollect the course of our own minds 
in acquiring knowledge, or in inventing, we may by retracing 
the same steps instruct others. The order that is frequently 
followed by authors, in the division and subdivision of their 
elementary treatises, is not always the best for those who are 
to learn. Such authors are usually more intent upon proving 
to the learned that they understand their subject, than upon 
communicating their knowledge to the ignorant.. Parents and 
tutors must, therefore, supply familiar oral instruction, and 
those simple, but essential explanations, which books disdain, 
or neglect to give. And there is this advantage in all instruc- 
tion given in conversation, that it can be made interesting by 
a thousand little circumstances, which are below the dignity 
of didactic writers. Gradually we may proceed from simple 
to more complicated contrivances. The invention of experi- 
ments to determine a theory, or to ascertain the truth of an 
assertion, must be particularly useful to the understanding. 
Any person, who has attended to experiments in chemistry 
and natural philosophy, must know, that invention can be as 
fully and elegantly displayed upon these subjects as upon any 
in the fine arts or literature. There is one great advantage 
in scientific invention ; it is not dependent upon capricious 
taste for its reward. The beauty and elegance of a poem 
may be disputed by a thousand amateurs ; there can be but 
one opinion about the truth of a discovery in science. 

Independent of all ambition, there is considerable pleasure 
in the pursuit of experimental knowledge. Children espe- 
cially, before they are yet fools to fame, enjoy this substan- 
tial pleasure. Nor are we to suppose that children have not 
capacities for such pursuits ; they are peculiarly suited to 
their capacity. They love to see experiments tried, and to 
try them. They show this disposition not only wherever 
they are encouraged, but wherever they are permitted to 
show it ; and if we compare their method of reasoning with 
the reasonings of the learned, we shall sometimes be surprised. 
They have no prejudices, therefore they have the complete 
use of all their senses ; they have few ideas, but those few 
are distinct ; they can be analyzed and compared with ease ; 
children, therefore, judge and invent better, in proportion to 
their knowledge, than most grown up people. 

Dr. Hooke observes, that a sensible man, in solving any 
philosophical problem, should always lean-to that side which 
is opposite to his favourite taste. A chemist is disposed to 
account for every thing by chemical means ; a geometrician. 



MEMORY AND INVENTION". 371 

is inclined to solve every problem geometrically ; and a me- 
chanic accounts for all the phenomena of nature by the laws 
of mechanism. This undue bias upon the minds of ingenious 
people, has frequently rendered their talents less useful to 
mankind. It is the duty of those who educate ingenious chil- 
dren, to guard against this species of scientific insanity. 

There are prejudices of another description, which are fa- 
tal to inventive genius ; some of these are usually found to 
attend ignorance, and others sometimes adhere to the learned. 
Ignorant people, if they possess any degree of invention, are 
so confident in their own abilities, that they will not take the 
pains to inquire what others have thought or done j they dis- 
dain all general principles, and will rather scramble through 
some by-path of their own striking out, than condescend to be 
shown the best road by the most enlightened guide. For this 
reason, self-taught geniuses, as they are called, seldom go be- 
yond a certain point in their own education, and the praise 
we bestow upon their ingenuity is always accompanied with 
expressions of regret : " It is a pity that such a genius had 
not the advantages of a good education." 

The learned, on the contrary, who have been bred up in 
reverence for established opinions, and who have felt in many 
instances the advantage of general principles, are apt to ad- 
here too pertinaciously to their theories, and hence they neg- 
lect or despise new observations. How long did the maxim, 
that nature abhors a vacuum, content the learned ! And how 
many discoveries were retarded by this single false principle ! 
For a great number of years it was affirmed and believed, 
that all objects were seen by the intervention of visual rays, 
proceeding from the eye much in the same manner as we feel 
any object at a distance from us By the help of a stick.* 
Whilst this absurd analogy satisfied the mind, no discoveries 
were made in vision, none were attempted. A prepossession 
often misleads the industry of active genius. Dr. Hooke, in 
spite of the ridicule which he met with, was firm in his belief, 
that mankind would discover some method of sailing in the 
air. Balloons have justified his prediction ; but all his own 
industry in trying experiments upon flying was wasted, be- 
cause he persisted in following a false analogy to the wings of 
birds. He made wings of various sorts ; till he took it for 
granted that he must learn to fly by mechanical means : had 
he applied to chemistry, he might have succeeded. It is cu- 
rious to observe, how nearly he once touched upon the dis- 
covery, and yet, misled by his prepossessions, quitted his 
hold. He observed, that the air cellst of fishes are filled 

* Priestley on Vision, vol. i. page 23, 
+ V. Hooke's Posthumous Works. 



372 fRACTICAIi EDUCATION. 

with air, which buoys them up in the water ; and he suppo- 
ses that this air is lighter than common air. Had he pursued 
this idea, he might have invented balloons ; but he returned 
with fatal perseverance to his old theory of wings. From 
such facts, we may learn the power and danger of prejudice 
in the most ingenious minds ; and we shall be careful to pre- 
serve our pupils early from its blind dominion. 

The best preservation against the presumption to which ig- 
norance is liable, and the best preservative against the self 
sufficiency to which the learned are subject, is the habit of 
varying our studies and occupations. Those who have a 
general view of the whole map of human knowledge, per- 
ceive how many unexplored regions are yet to be cultivated 
by future industry ; nor will they implicitly submit to the re- 
ports of ignorant voyagers. No imaginary pillars of Hercu- 
les, will bound their enterprises. There is no presumption in 
believing, that much more is possible to science than ever hu- 
man ingenuity has executed ; therefore, young people should 
not be ridiculed for that sanguine temper which excites to 
great inventions. They should be ridiculed only when they 
imagine that they possess the means of doing things to which 
they are unequal. The fear of this deserved ridicule, will 
stimulate them to acquire knowledge, and will induce them to 
estimate cautiously their own powers before they hazard their 
reputation. We need not fear that this caution should repress 
their activity of mind ; ambition will secure their persever- 
ance, if they are taught that every acquisition is within the 
reach of unremitting industry. This is not an opinion to be 
artfully inculcated to serve a particular purpose, but it is an 
opinion drawn from experience ; an opinion which men of 
the highest abilities and integrity, of talents and habits the 
most dissimilar, have confirmed by their united testimony. 
Helvetius maintained, that no great man ever formed a great 
design which he was not also capable of executing. . 

Even where great perseverance is exercised, the choice of 
the subjects on which the inventive powers are employed de- 
termines, in a great measure, their value : therefore, in the 
education of ingenious children, we should gradually turn 
their attention from curious trifles to important objects. Bov- 
erick,* who made chains " to yoke a flea," must have pos- 
sessed exquisite patience ; besides his chain of two hundred 
links, with its padlock and key, all weighing together less 
than the third part of a grain, this indefatigable minute artifi- 
cer was the maker of a landau, which opened and shut by 
springs : this equipage, with six horses harnessed to it, a 
coachman sitting on the box, with a dog between his legs, four 

* Hooke's Mycrographia, p. 62. 



MEMORY AND INVENTION. 373 

inside and two outside passengers, besides a postillion riding 
one of the fore horses, was drawn with all the ease and safety 
imaginable by a well trained flea ! The inventor and executor 
of this puerile machine, bestowed on it, probably, as much 
time as would have sufficed to produce Watt's fire engine, or 
Montgolfier's balloon. It did not, perhaps, cost the Marquis 
of Worcester more exertion to draw out his celebrated cen- 
tury of inventions ; it did not, perhaps, cost Newton more to 
write those queries w T hich Maclaurin said he could never read 
without feeling his hair stand an end with admiration. 

Brebeuf, a French wit, wrote a hundred and fifty epigrams 
upon a painted lady ; a brother wit, fired with emulation, 
wrote upon the same subject three hundred more, making in 
all four hundred and fifty epigrams, each with appropriate 
turns of their own. Probably, Pope and Parnell did not 
rack their invention so much, or exercise more industry in 
completing " The Rape of the Lock," or " The Rise of Wo- 
man." These will live for ever ; who will read the four 
hundred and fifty epigrams ? 

The most effectual methods to discourage in young people 
the taste for frivolous ingenuity, will be, never to admire these 
" laborious nothings," to compare them with useful and ele- 
gant inventions, and to show that vain curiosities can be but 
the wonder and amusement of a moment. Children who be- 
gin with trifling inventions, may be led from these to generaL 
principles ; and with their knowledge, their ambition will nec- 
essarily increase. It cannot be expected that the most en- 
larged plan of education could early give an intimate ac- 
quaintance with all the sciences; but with their leading prin- 
ciples, their general history, their present state, and their im- 
mediate desiderata,* young people may, and ought to be, 
made acquainted. Their own industry will afterwards collect 
more precise information, and they will never waste their 
time in vain studies and fruitless inventions. Even if the 
cultivation of the memory were our grand object, this plan of 
education will succeed. When the Abbe de Longnerue, 
whose prodigious memory we have formerly mentioned, was 
asked by the Marquis d'Argenson, how he managed to ar- 
range and retain in his head every thing that entered it, and 
to recollect every thing when wanted ? The Abbe answered : 

" Sir, the elements of every science must be learned whilst 
we are very young ; the first principles of every language ; 
the a b c, as I may say, of every kind of knowledge : this is 
not difficult in youth, especially as it is not necessary to pen- 
etrate far; simple notions are sufficient ; when once these are 
acquired, every thing we read afterwards, finds its proper 
place." 

* Priestley has ably given the desiderata of electricity, vision, &c. 



374 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



CHAPTER XXIL 

TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 

Figurative language seems to have confounded the ideas 
of most writers upon metaphysics. Imagination, Memory, 
and Reason, have been long introduced to our acquaintance 
as allegorical personages, and we have insensibly learned to 
consider them as real beings. The " viewless regions" of 
the soul have been portioned out amongst these ideal sover- 
eigns ; but disputes have, nevertheless, sometimes arisen con- 
cerning the boundaries of intellectual provinces. Amongst 
the disputed territories, those of Imagination have been most 
frequently the seat of war ; her empire has been subject to 
continual revolution ; her dominions have been, by potent in- 
vaders, divided and subdivided. Fancy,* Memory,! Ideal 
presence,| and Conception.|| have shared her spoils. 

By poets, imagination has been addressed as the great par- 
ent of genius, as the arbiter, if not the creator, of our pleas- 
ures ; by philosophers, her name has been sometimes pro- 
nounced with horror ; to her fatal delusions, they have as- 
cribed all the crimes and miseries of mankind. Yet, even 
philosophers have not always agreed in their opinions : 
whilst some have treated Imagination with contempt, as the 
irreconcileable enemy of Reason, by others§ she has been 
considered with more respect, as Reason's inseparable 
friend ; as the friend who collects and prepares all the argu- 
ments upon which Reason decides ; as the injured, misrepre- 
sented power who is often forced to supply her adversaries 
with eloquence, who is often called upon to preside at her own 
trial, and to pronounce her own condemnation. 

Imagination is " the power ■," we are told, of '■''forming ima- 
ges :" the word image, however, does not, strictly speaking, 
express any thing more than a representation of an object of 
sight ; but the power of imagination extends to objects of all 
the senses. 

" I hear a voice you cannot bear, 
Which says I must not stay. 
I see a hand you cannot see, 
Which beckons me away." 

* Wharton's Ode to Fancy. t Gerard. 

% Lord Kames. || Professor Stewart. 

§ V. An excellent essay of Mr. Barnes's on Imagination. Manchester So- 
ciety, vol. i. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 375 

Imagination hears the voice, as well as sees the hand ; by 
an easy license of metaphor, what was originally used to ex- 
press the operation of our senses, is extended to them all. 
We do not precisely say, that Imagination forms images of 
past sounds, or tastes, or smells ; but we say that she forms 
ideas of them ; and ideas, we are told, are mental images. 
It has been suggested by Dr. Darwin, that all these analogies 
betweeo images and thoughts have, probably, originated in 
our observing the little pictures painted on the retina of the eye. 

It is difficult certainly, if not impossible, to speak of the 
invisible operations of the mind or body, without expressing 
ourselves in metaphor of some kind or other ; and we are 
easily misled by allusions to sensible objects, because when 
we comprehend the allusion, we flatter ourselves that we un- 
derstand the theory which it is designed to illustrate. Wheth- 
er we call ideas images in popular language, or vibrations, 
according to Dr. Hartley's system, or modes of sensation 
with Condillac, or motions of the sensorium, in the language 
of Dr. Darwin, may seem a matter of indifference. But 
even the choices of names is not a matter of indifference to 
those who wish to argue accurately ; when they are obliged 
to describe their feelings or thoughts by rnetaphoric expres- 
sions, they will prefer the simplest ; those with which the 
fewest extraneous associations are connected. Words which 
call up a variety of heterogeneous ideas to our minds, are un- 
fit for the purposes of sober reasoning ; our attention is dis- 
tracted by them, and we cannot restrain it to the accurate 
comparison of simple proportions. We yield to pleasing re- 
verie, instead of exerting painful voluntary attention. Hence 
it is probably useful in our attempts to reason, especially up- 
on metaphysical subjects, to change from time to time our no- 
menclature,* and to substitute terms which have no relation 
to our old associations, and which do not affect the prejudices 
of our education. We are obliged to define with some de- 
gree of accuracy the sense of new terms, and we are thus 
led to compare our old notions with more severity. Our su- 
perstitious reverence for mere symbols is also dissipated ; 
symbols are apt to impose even upon those who acknowledge 
their vanity, and who profess to consider them merely as ob- 
jects of vulgar worship. 

When - we call a class of our ideas images and pictures, a 
tribe of associations with painting comes into our mind, and 
we argue about Imagination as if she were actually a paint- 

* It is to be hoped that the foreign philosophers, who, it is said, are now 
employed in drawing up a new metaphysical nomenclature, will avail them- 
selves of the extensive knowledge, and original genius of the author of Zoo- 
nomia 



376 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ress, who has colours at her command, and who, upon some 
invisible canvass in the soul, portrays the likeness of all 
earthly and celestial objects. When we continue to pursue 
the same metaphor in speaking of the moral influence of Im- 
agination, we say that her colouring deceives us, that her pic- 
tures are flattering and false, that she draws objects out of 
proportion, &c. To what do all these metaphors lead ? We 
make no new discoveries by talking in this manner ; we do 
not learn the cause or the cure of any of the diseases of the 
mind ; we only persuade ourselves that we know something, 
when we are really ignorant. 

We have sedulously avoided entering into any metaphysical 
disquisitions; but we have examined with care the systems 
of theoretic writers, that we may be able to avail ourselves 
of such of their observations as can be reduced to practice 
in education. With respect to the arts, imagination may be 
considered practically in two points of view, as it relates to 
our taste, and as it relates to our talents for the arts. With- 
out being a poet, or an orator, a man may have a sufficient de- 
gree of imagination to receive pleasure from the talents of 
others ; he may be a critical judge of the respective merits of 
orators, poets, and artists. This sensibility to the pleasures 
of the imagination, when judiciously managed, adds much to 
the happiness of life, and it must be peculiarly advantageous 
to those who are precluded by their station in society from 
the necessity of manual labour. Mental exercise, and men- 
tal amusements, are essential to persons in the higher ranks 
of life, who would escape from the fever of dissipation, or 
from the lethargy of ennui. The mere physical advantages 
which wealth can procure, are reducible to the short sum of 
" meat, fire, and clothes." A nobleman of the highest birth, 
and with the longest line of ancestry, inherits no intuitive 
taste, nor can he purchase it from the artist, the painter, or 
the poet ; the possession of the whole Pinelli library could 
not infuse the slightest portion of literature. Education can 
alone give the full power to enjoy the real advantages of for- 
tune. To educate the taste and the imagination, it is not nec- 
essary to surround the heir of an opulent family with masters 
and connoisseurs. Let him never hear the jargon of ama- 
teurs, let him learn the art " not to admire." But in his ear- 
liest childhood cultivate his senses with care, that he may be 
able to see and hear, to feel and understand, for himself. 
Visible images he will rapidly collect in his memory ; but 
these must be selected, and his first associations must not be 
trusted to accident. Encourage him to observe with atten- 
tion all the works of nature, but show him only the best imi- 
tations of art ; the first objects that he contemplates with de- 
light, will remain long associated with pleasure in his imagin- 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 377 

ation ; you must, therefore, be careful, that these early asso- 
ciations accord with the decisions of those who have deter- 
mined the national standard of taste. In many instances 
taste is governed by arbitrary and variable laws ; the fash- 
ions of dress, of decoration, of manner, change from day to 
day ; therefore no exclusive prejudices should confine your 
pupil's understanding. Let him know, as far as we know 
them, the general principles which govern mankind in their 
admiration of the sublime and beautiful ; but at the same 
time give him that enlarged toleration of mind, which compre- 
hends the possibility of a taste different from our own. Show 
him, and you need not go further than the Indian skreen, or 
the Chinese paper in your drawing room, for the illustration, 
that the sublime and beautiful vary at Pekin, at London, on 
Westminster bridge, and on the banks of the Ganges. Let 
your young pupil look over a collection of gems or of ancient 
medals ; it is necessary that his eye should be early accus- 
tomed to Grecian beauty, and to all the classic forms of grace. 
But do not suffer him to become a bigot, though he may be 
an enthusiast in his admiration of the antique. Short lessons 
upon this subject may be conveyed in a few words. If a 
child sees you look at the bottom of a print for the name of 
the artist, before you will venture to pronounce upon its mer- 
its, he will follow your example, and he will judge by the 
authority of others, and not by his own taste. If he hears 
you ask, who wrote this poem ? Who built this palace ? Is 
this a genuine antique ? he will ask the same questions before 
he ventures to be pleased. If he hears you pronounce with 
emphasis, that such a thing comes from Italy, and therefore 
must be in good taste, he will take the same compendious 
method of decision upon the first convenient occasion. 

He will not trouble himself to examine why utility pleas- 
es, nor will he analyze his taste, or discover why one propor- 
tion or one design pleases him better than another ; he will, 
if by example you teach him prejudice, content himself with 
repeating the words, proportion, antique, picturesque, &c. 
without annexing any precise ideas to these words. 

Parents, who have not turned their attention to metaphys- 
ics, may, perhaps, apprehend, that they have something very 
abstruse or intricate to learn, before they can instruct their 
pupils in the principles of taste : but these principles are sim- 
ple, and two or three entertaining books, of no very alarming 
size, comprise all that has yet been ascertained upon this sub- 
ject. Vernet's Theorie des Sentiments Agreables ; Hogarth's 
Analysis of Beauty ; an Essay of Hume on the standard of 
taste ; Burke's Sublime and Beautiful ; Lord Karnes's Ele- 
ments of Criticism ; Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses ; and 
43 



378 PHACTICAI EDUCATION. 

Alison on Taste ; contain so much instruction, mixed with so 
much amusement, that we cannot think that it will be a ter- 
rible task to any parent to peruse them. 

These books are above the comprehension of children; but 
the principles which they contain, can be very early illus- 
trated in conversation. It will be easy, in familiar instances-, 
to show children that the fitness, propriety, or utility of cer- 
tain forms, recommends them to our approbation : that unifor- 
mity, an appearance of order and regularity, are, in some ca- 
ses, agreeable to us ; contrast, in others : that one class of 
objects pleases us from habit, another from novelty, &c. 
The general principle that governs taste, in the greatest vari- 
ety of instances, is the association of ideas, and this, fortu- 
nately, can be most easily illustrated. 

" 1 like such a person, because her voice puts me in mind 
of my mother's. I like this walk, because I was very happy 
the last time I was here with my sister. I think green is the 
prettiest of all colours ; my father's room is painted green, 
and it is very cheerful, and 1 have been very happy in that 
room ; and, besides, the grass is green in spring." Such sim- 
ple observations as these, come naturally from children ; 
they take notice of the influence of association upon their 
taste, though, perhaps, they may not extend their observa- 
tions so as to deduce the general principle according to phi- 
losophical forms. We should not lay down for them this or 
any other principle of taste, as a rule which they are to take 
for granted ; but we should lead them to class their own de- 
sultory remarks, and we should excite them to attend to their 
own feelings, and to ascertain the truth, by experiments upon 
themselves. We have often observed, that children have 
been much entertained with comparing the accidental circum- 
stances they have met with, and the unpremeditated expres- 
sions used in conversation, with any general maxim. In this 
point of view, we may render even general maxims service- 
able to children, because they will excite to experiment : our 
pupils will detect their falsehood, or, after sufficient reflection,, 
acknowledge their truth. 

Perhaps it may be thought, that this mode of instruction 
will tend rather to improve the judgment than the taste ; but 
every person of good taste, must also have a good judgment 
in matters of taste : sometimes the judgment may have been 
partially exercised upon a particular class of objects, and its 
accuracy of discrimination may be confined to this one ob- 
ject ; therefore we hastily decide, that, because men of taste 
may not always be men of universally good judgment, these 
two powers of the mind are unnecessary to one another. By 
teaching the philosophy, at the same time that we cultivate 
the pleasures, of taste, we shall open to our pupils a new 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 379 

world ; we shall give them a new sense. The pleasure of ev- 
ery effect will be increased by the perception of its cause ; 
the magic of the scenery will not lose its power to charm, 
though we are aware of the secret of the enchantment. 

We have hitherto spoken of the taste for what is beautiful ; 
a taste for the sublime we should be cautious in cultivating. 
Obscurity and terror are two of the grand sources of the 
sublime ; analyze the feeling, examine accurately the object 
which creates the emotion, and you dissipate the illusion, you 
annihilate the pleasure. 

" What seemed its head, the likeness of a kingly crown had on." 

The indistinctness of the head and of the kingly crown, 
makes this a sublime image. Upon the same principle, 

" Danger, whose limbs of giant mould, 
No mortal eye can fix'd behold/' 

always must appear sublime as long as the passion of fear op- 
erates. Would it not, however, be imprudent in education to 
permit that early propensity to superstitious terrors, and that 
temporary suspension of the reasoning faculties, which are 
often essential to our taste for the sublime ? When we hear of 
" Margaret's grimly ghost," or of the " dead still hour of night," 
a sort of awful tremor seizes us, partly from the effect of ear- 
ly associations, and partly from the solemn tone of the reader. 
The early associations which we perhaps have formed of ter- 
ror, with the ideas of apparitions, and winding sheets, and 
sable shrouds, should be unknown to children. The silent 
solemn hour of midnight, should not to them be an hour of 
terror. In the following poetic description of the beldam 
telling dreadful stories to her infant audience, we hear only 
of the pleasures of the imagination ; we do not recollect how 
dearly these pleasures must be purchased by their votaries: 

«. # * * * * * finally by night 
The village matron, round the blazing hearth, 
Suspends the infant audience with her tales, 
Breathing astonishment ! of witching rhymes. 
And evil spirits ; of the death-bed call 
Of him who robbed the widow, and devqur'd 
The orphan's portion ; of the unquiet souls 
Ris'n from the grave to ease the heavy guilt 
Of deeds in life concealed ; of shapes that walk 
At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave 
The torch of hell around the murd'rers bed. 
At every solemn pause the crowd recoil, 
Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd 
With shiv'ring sighs ; till, eager for th' event, 
Around the beldam all erect they hang, 
Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd."* 

* Akenside 



380 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

No prudent mother will ever imitate this eloquent village 
matron, nor will she permit any beldam in the nursery to con- 
jure up these sublime shapes, and to quell the hearts of her 
children with these grateful terrors. We were once present 
when a group of speechless children sat listening to the story 
of Blue^beard, " breathing astonishment." A gentleman who 
saw the charm beginning to operate, resolved to counteract its 
dangerous influence. Just at the critical moment, when the 
fatal key drops from the trembling hands of the imprudent 
wife, the gentleman interrupted the awful pause of silence 
that ensued, and requested permission to relate the remainder 
of the story. Tragi-comedy does not offend the taste of 
young, so much as of old critics ; the transition from grave to 
gay was happily managed. Blue-beard's wife afforded much 
diversion, and lost all sympathy the moment she was repre- 
sented as a curious, tattling, timid, ridiculous woman. The 
terrors of Blue-beard himself subsided when he was properly 
introduced to the company ; and the denouement of the piece 
was managed much to the entertainment of the audience ; the 
catastrophe, instead of freezing their young blood, produced 
general laughter. Ludicrous images, thus presented to the 
mind which has been prepared for horror, have an instanta- 
neous effect upon the risible muscles : it seems better to use 
these means of counteracting the terrors of the imagination', 
than to reason upon the subject whilst the fit is on ; reason 
should be used between the fits.* Those who study the 
minds of children know the nice touches which affect their 
imagination, and they can, by a few words, change their feel- 
ings by the power of association. 

Ferdinand Duke of Tuscany was once struck with the pic- 
ture of a child crying : the painter,! who was at work upon 
the head, wished to give the duke a proof of his skill : by a 
few judicious strokes, he converted the crying into a laughing 
face. The duke, when he looked at the child again, was in 
astonishment : the painter, to show himself master of the hu- 
man countenance^ restored his first touches ; and the duke, in 
a few moments, saw the child weeping again. A preceptor 
may acquire similar power over the countenance of his pupil 
if he has studied the oratorical art. By the art of oratory, 
we do not mean the art of misrepresentation, the art of decep- 
tion ; we mean the art of showing the truth in the strongest 
light ; of exciting virtuous enthusiasm and generous indigna- 
tion. Warm, glowing eloquence, is not inconsistent with ac- 
curacy of reasoning and judgment. When we have expressed 

* i: Know there are words and spells which can control, 

Between the fits, the fever of tl>e soul," Pope. 

t Peter of Cortona. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 381 

our admiration or abhorrence of any action or character, we 
should afterwards be ready coolly to explain to our pupils the 
justice of our sentiments : by this due mixture and alternation 
of eloquence and reasoning, we may cultivate a taste for the 
moral and sublime, and yet preserve the character from any 
tincture of extravagant enthusiasm. We cannot expect, that 
the torrent of passion should never sweep away the land- 
marks of exact morality ; but after its overflowing impetuosi- 
ty abates, we should take a calm survey of its effects, and we 
should be able to ascertain the boundaries of right and wrong 
with geometrical precision. 

There is a style of bombast morality affected by some au- 
thors, which must be hurtful to young readers. Generosity 
and honour, courage and sentiment, are the striking qualities 
which seize and enchant the imagination in romance : these 
qualities must be joined with justice, prudence, economy, 
patience, and many humble virtues, to make a character 
really estimable ; but these would spoil the effect, perhaps, of 
dramatic exhibitions. 

Children may with much greater safety see hideous, than 
gigantic representations of the passions. Richard the Third 
excites abhorrence ; but young Charles de Moor, in " The 
Robbers," commands our sympathy ; even the enormity of 
his guilt, exempts him from all ordinary modes of trial ; we 
forget the murderer, and see something like a hero. It is cu- 
rious to observe, that the legislature in Germany, and in Eng- 
land, have found it necessary to interfere as to the represen- 
tation of Captain Mac Heath and the Robbers; two charac- 
ters in which the tragic and the comic muse have had power- 
ful effects in exciting imitation. George Barnwell is a 
hideous representation of the passions, and therefore bene- 
ficial. 

There are many sublime objects which do not depend upon 
terror, or at least upon false associations of terror, for their 
effect; and there are many sublime thoughts, which have no 
connexion with violent passions or false ideas of morality. 
These are what we should select, if possible, to raise, without 
inflating, the imagination. The view of the ocean, of the set- 
ting or the rising sun, the great and bold scenes of nature, 
affects the mind with sublime pleasure. All the objects which 
suggest ideas of vast space, or power, of the infinite duration 
of time, of the decay of the monuments of ancient grandeur, 
or of the master-pieces of human art and industry, have power 
to raise sublime sensations : but we should consider, that they 
raise this pleasure only by suggesting certain ideas ; those who 
have not the previous ideas, will not feel the pleasure. We 
should not, therefore, expect that children should admire ob- 
jects which do not excite any ideas in their minds ; we should 



382 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

wait till they have acquired the necessary knowledge, and we 
should not injudiciously familiarize them with these objects. 

Simplicity is a source of the sublime, peculiarly suited to 
children ; accuracy of observation and distinctness of percep- 
tion, are essential to this species of the sublime. In Percy's 
collection of ancient ballads, and in the modern poems of the 
Ayreshire ploughman, we may see many instances of the effect 
of simplicity. To preserve our pupil's taste from a false 
love of ornament, he must avoid, either in books or conversa- 
tion, all verbose and turgid descriptions, the use of words and 
epithets which only fill up the measure of a line. 

When a child sees any new object, or feels any new sensa- 
tion, we should assist him with appropriate words to express 
his thoughts and feelings : when the impression is fresh in his 
mind, the association, with the precise descriptive epithets, 
can be made with most certainty. As soon as a child has ac- 
quired a sufficient stock of words and ideas, he should be from 
time to time exercised in description ; we should encourage, 
him to give an exact account of his own feelings in his own 
words. Those parents who have been used to elegant, will 
not, perhaps, be satisfied with the plain, descriptions of un- 
practised pupils ; but they should not be fastidious ; they 
should rather be content with an epithet too little, than with 
an epithet too much ; and they should compare the child's 
description with the objects actually described, and not with 
the poems of Thomson or Gray, or Milton or Shakspeare. If 
we excite our pupils to copy from the writings of others, they 
never can have any originality of thought. To show parents 
what sort of simple descriptions they may reasonably expect 
from children, we venture to produce the following extempore 
description of a summer's evening, given by three children of 
different ages. 

July 12th, 1796. Mr. was walking out with his 

family, and he asked his children to describe the evening just 
as it appeared to them. " There were three bards in Os- 
sian's poems," said he, " who were sent out to see what sort 
of a night it was ; they all gave different descriptions upon 
their return ; you have never any of you read Ossian, but you 
can give us some description of this evening ; try." 

B (a girl of 14.) " The clouds in the west are bright 

with the light of the sun which has just set ; a thick mist is 
seen in the east, and the smoke which had been heaped up in 
the day-time, is now spread, and mixes with the mist all round 
us ; the noises are heard more plainly (though there are but 
few) than in the day-time ; and those which are at a distance, 
sound almost as near as those which are close to us ; there is 
a red mist round the moon." 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 383 

O- — (a girl of eleven years old.) " The western clouds 
are pink with the light of the sun which has just set. The 
moon shines red through the mist. The smoke and mist 
make it look dark at a distance ; but the few objects near us 
appear plainer. If it was not for the light of the moon, they 
W r ould not be seen ; but the moon is exceedingly bright ; it shines 
upon the house and the windows. Every thing sounds busy 
at a distance ; but what is near us is still." 

S (a boy between nine and ten years old.) " The sun 

has set behind the hill, and the western clouds are tinged with 
light. The mist mixes with the smoke, which rises from the 
heaps of weeds which some poor man is burning to earn bread 
for his family. The moon through the mist peeps her head, 
and sometimes she goes back, retires into her bower of clouds. 
The few noises that are heard, are heard very plain — very 
plainly." 

We should observe, that the children who attempted these 
little descriptions, had not been habituated to the poetic trade § 
these were the only descriptions of an evening which they 
ever made. It would be hurtful to exercise children frequent* 
ly in descriptive composition ; it would give them the habit of 
exact observation, it is true, but something more is necessary 
to the higher species of poetry. Words must be selected 
which do not represent only, but which suggest, ideas. Mi- 
nute veracity is essential to some sorts of description; but in 
a higher style of poetry, only the large features characteris- 
tic of the scene must be produced, and all that is subordinate 
must be suppressed. Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observes, 
that painters, who aim merely at deception of the eye by ex- 
act imitation, are not likely, even in their most successful imi- 
tations, to rouse the imagination. The man who mistook the 
painted fly for a real fly, only brushed, or attempted to brush 
it, away. The exact representation of such a common ob- 
ject, could not raise any sublime ideas in his mind; and 
when he perceived the deception, the wonder which he felt at 
the painter's art, was a sensation no wise connected with po- 
etic enthusiasm. 

As soon as young people have collected a variety of ideas, 
we can proceed a step in the education of their fancy. We 
should sometimes in conversation, sometimes in writing or in 
drawing, show them how a few strokes, or a few words, can 
suggest or combine various ideas. A single expression from 
Caesar, charmed a mutinous army to instant submission. Un- 
less the words " Roman Citizens /" had suggested more than 
meets the ear, how couid they have produced this wonderful 
effect ? The works of Voltaire ant! Sterne abound with ex- 
amples of the skilful use of the language of suggestion : on 
this the wit of Voltaire, and the humour and pathos of Sterne. 



384 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

securely depend for their success. Thus, corporal Trim's 
eloquence on the death of his young master, owed its effect 
upon the whole kitchen, including " the fat scullion, who was 
scouring a fish-kettle upon her knees," to the well-timed use 
of the mixed language of action and suggestion. 

" ' Are we not here now ?' continued the corporal (striking 
the end of his stick perpendicularly upon the floor, so as to 
give an idea of health and stability) ' and are we not' (drop- 
ping his hat upon the ground) ' gone in a moment ?' " 

" Are we not here now, and gone in a moment ?" continues 
Sterne, who, in this instance, reveals the secret of his own 
art. " There was nothing in the sentence ; it was one of 
your self-evident truths we have the advantage of hearing ev- 
ery day ; and if Trim had not trusted more to his hat than his 
head, he had made nothing at all of it." 

When we point out to our pupils such examples in Sterne, 
we hope it will not be understood, that we point them out to 
induce servile imitation. We apprehend, that the imitators 
of Sterne have failed from not having discovered that the in- 
terjections and dashes of this author, are not in them- 
selves beauties, but that they affect us by suggesting ideas. 
To prevent any young writers from the intemperate or absurd 
use of interjections, we should show them Mr. Home Tooke's 
acute remarks upon this mode of embellishment. We do not, 
however, entirely agree with this author in his abhorrence of 
interjections. We do not believe that " where speech can be 
employed they are totally useless ; and are always insuf- 
ficient for the purpose of communicating our thoughts."* 
Even if we class them, as Mr. Tooke himself does,! amongst 
" involuntary convulsions with oral sound," such as groaning, 
shrieking, &c. yet they may suggest ideas, as well as express 
animal feelings. Sighing, according to Mr. Tooke, is in the 
class of interjections, yet the poet acknowledges the superior 
eloquence of sighs : 

" Persuasive words, and more persuasive sighs." 

u ' I wish,' said Uncle Toby, with a deep sigh (after hear- 
ing the story of Le Fevre) ' I wish, Trim, I was asleep.' ' 
The sigh here adds great force to the wish, and it does not 
mark that Uncle Toby, from vehemence of passion, had re- 
turned to the brutal state of a savage who has not learnt the 
use of speech ; but, on the contrary, it suggests to the reader, 
that Uncle Toby was a man of civilized humanity ; not one 
whose compassion was to be excited merely as an animal 
feeling by the actual sight of a fellow-creature in pain, but 
rather by the description of the sufferer's situation. 

* V. Epea Pteroentra, p. 88. t Chapter on Grammar. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION, 385 

In painting, as well as in writing, the language of sugges- 
tion affects the mind, and if any of our pupils should wish to 
excel in this art, they must early attend to this principle. 
The picture of Agamemnon hiding his face at the sacrifice of 
his daughter, expresses little to the eye, but much to the im- 
agination. The usual signs of grief and joy make but slight 
impression ; to laugh and to weep are such common expres- 
sions of delight or anguish, that they cannot be mistaken, even 
by the illiterate ; but the imagination must be cultivated to 
enlarge the sphere of sympathy, and to render a more refined 
language intelligible. It is said that a Milanese artist painted 
two peasants, and two country-girls, who laughed so heartily, 
that no one could look at them without laughing.* This is an 
instance of sympathy unconnected with imagination. The 
following is an instance of sympathy excited by imagination. 
When Porcia was to part from Brutus, just before the break- 
ing out of the civil war, " she endeavoured," says Plutarch, 
" as well as possible, to conceal the son«ow that oppressed 
her; but, notwithstanding her magnanimity, a picture be- 
trayed her distress. The subject was the parting of Hector 
and Andromache. He was represented delivering his son 
Astyanax into her arms, and the eyes of Andromache were 
fixed upon him. The resemblance that this picture bore to 
her own distress, made Porcia burst into tears the moment 
she beheld it." If Porcia had never read Homer, Androma- 
che would not have had this power over her imagination and 
her sympathy. 

The imagination not only heightens the power of sympathy 
with the emotions of all the passions which a painter would 
excite, but it is likewise essential to our taste for another class 
of pleasures. Artists, who like Hogarth would please by hu- 
mour, wit, and ridicule, must depend upon the imagination of 
the spectators to supply all the intermediate ideas which they 
would suggest. The cobweb over the poor box, one of the 
happiest strokes of satire that Hogarth ever invented, would 
probably say nothing to the inattentive eye, or the dull imag- 
ination. A young person must acquire the language, before 
he can understand the ideas of superior minds. 

The taste for poetry must be prepared by the culture of 
the imagination. The united powers of music and poetry 
could not have triumphed over Alexander, unless his imagin- 
ation had assisted " the mighty master." 

" With downcast looks the joyless victor sat, 

Revolving in his altered soul 

The various turns of chance below ; 

And now and then a sigh he stole, 

And tears began to flow." 

* V. Camper's Works, p. 126. 
49 



386 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 

The sigh and the tears were the consequences of Alexan- 
der's own thoughts, which were only recalled by kindred 
sounds. We are well aware, that savage nations, or those 
that are imperfectly civilized, are subject to enthusiasm ; but 
wc are inclined to think, that the barbarous clamour with 
which they proclaim their delight in music and poetry, may 
deceive us as to the degree in which it is felt : the sensations 
of cultivated minds may be more exquisite, though they are 
felt in silence. It has been supposed, that ignorance is ex- 
tremely susceptible of the pleasures of wonder : but wonder 
and admiration are different feelings : the admiration which 
a cultivated mind feels for excellence, of which it can fully 
judge, is surely a higher species of pleasure, than the brute 
wonder expressed by " a foolish face of praise." Madame 
Roland tells us, that once, at a sermon preached by a cele- 
brated Frenchman, she was struck with the earnest attention 
painted in the countenance of a young woman who was look- 
ing up at the preacher. At length the fair enthusiast exclaim- 
ed, " My God, how he perspires !" A different sort of ad- 
miration was felt by Csssar, when the scroll dropped from his 
hand whilst he listened to an oration of Cicero. 

There are an Vnfinite variety of associations, by which the or- 
ator has power to rouse the imagination of a person of cultivated 
understanding; there are comparatively few, by which he can 
amuse the fancy of illiterate auditors. It is not that they 
have less imagination than others ; they have equally the 
power of raising vivid images ; but there are few images 
which can be recalled to them : the combinations of their 
ideas are confined to a small number, and words have no po- 
etic or literary associations in their minds : even amongst 
children, this difference between the power we have over the 
cultivated and uncultivated mind, early appears. A laurel 
leaf is to the eye of an illiterate boy nothing more than a 
shrub with a shining, pale-green, pointed leaf: recall the idea 
of that shrub by the most exact description, it will affect him 
with no peculiar pleasure : but associate early in a boy's 
mind the ideas of glory, of poetry, of Olympic crowns, of 
Daphne and Apollo ; by some of these latent associations the 
orator may afterwards raise his enthusiasm. We shall not 
here repeat what has been said* upon the choice of literature 
for young people, but shall once more warn parents to let their 
pupils read only the best authors, if they wish them to have 
a fine imagination, or a delicate taste. When their minds are 
awake and warm, show them excellence ; let them hear ora- 
tory only when they can feel it ; if the impression be vivid, 
no matter how transient the touch. Ideas which have once 

* V. Chapter on Books. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 387 

struck the imagination, can be recalled by the magic of a 
word, with all their original, all their associated force. Do 
not fatigue the eye and ear of your vivacious pupil with the 
monotonous sounds and confused images of vulgar poetry. 
Do not make him repeat the finest passages of Shakspeare 
and Milton : the effect is lost by repetition ; the words, the 
ideas are profaned. Let your pupils hear eloquence from 
eloquent lips, and they will own its power. But let a draw- 
ling, unirapassioned reader, read a play of Shakspeare, or 
an oration of Demosthenes, and if your pupil is not out of 
patience, he will never taste the charms of eloquence. If he 
feels a fine sentiment, or a sublime idea, pause, leave his mind 
full, leave his imagination elevated. Five minutes afterwards, 
perhaps, your pupil's attention is turned to something else, and 
the sublime idea seems to be forgotten : but do not fear ; the 
idea is not obliterated ; it is latent in his memory ; it will ap- 
pear at a proper time, perhaps a month, perhaps twenty 
years afterwards. Ideas may remain long useless, and al- 
most forgotten in the mind, and may be called forth by some 
corresponding association from their torpid state. 

Young people, who wish to make themselves orators or el- 
oquent writers, should acquire the habit of attending first to 
the general impression made upon their own minds, by ora- 
tory, and afterwards to the cause which produced the effect ; 
hence they will obtain command over the minds of others, by 
using the knowledge they have acquired of their own. The 
habit of considering every new idea, or new fact, as a subject 
for allusion, may also be useful to the young orator. A 
change from time to time in the nature of his studies, will en- 
large and invigorate his imagination. Gibbon says, that, af- 
ter the publication of his first volume of the Roman history, 
he gave himself a short holyday. " I indulged my curiosity 
in some studies of a very different nature : a course of anat- 
omy, which was demonstrated by L>. Hunter, and some les- 
sons of chemistry, which were delivered by Dr. Higgins. 
The principles of these sciences, and a taste for books of nat- 
ural history, contributed to multiply my ideas and images ; 
and the anatomist and chemist may sometimes track me in 
their own snow.' 1 

Different degrees of enthusiasm are requisite in different 
professions ; but we are inclined to think, that the imagina- 
tion might with advantage be cultivated to a much higher de- 
gree than is commonly allowed in young men intended for 
public advocates. We have seen several examples of the ad- 
vantage of a general taste for the belles lettres in eminent 
lawyers ;* and we have lately seen an ingenious treatise cal- 

* Lord Mansfield, Hussey Burgh, &c. 



338 PKACTICAL EDUCATION. 

led Deinology, or instructions for a Young Barrister, which 
confirms our opinion upon this subject. An orator, by the 
judicious preparation of the minds of his audience, may in- 
crease the effect of his best arguments. A Grecian painter,* 
before he would produce a picture which he had finished, 
representing a martial enterprise, ordered martial music to be 
played, to raise the enthusiasm of the assembled spectators ; 
when their imagination was sufficiently elevated, he uncover- 
ed the. picture, and it was beheld with sympathetic transports 
of applause. 

It is usually thought, that persons of extraordinary imagin- 
ation are deficient in judgment: by proper education, this 
evil might be prevented. We may observe that persons, who 
have acquired particular facility in certain exercises of the 
imagination, can, by voluntary exertion, either excite or sup- 
press certain trains of ideas on which their enthusiasm de- 
pends. An actor, who storms and raves whilst he is upon 
the stage, appears with a mild and peaceable demeanour a mo- 
ment afterwards behind the scenes. A poet, in his inspired mo- 
ments, repeats his own verses in his garret with all the emphasis 
and fervour of enthusiasm; but when he comes down to dine 
with a mixed convivial company, his poetic fury subsides, a 
new train of ideas takes place in his imagination. As long as 
he has sufficient command over himself to lay aside his enthu- 
siasm in company, he is considered as a reasonable, sensible 
man, and the more imagination he displays in his poems, the 
better. The same exercise of fancy, which we admire in one 
case, we ridicule in another. The enthusiasm which charac- 
terises the man of genius, borders upon insanity. 

When Voltaire was teaching mademoiselle Clairon, the cel- 
ebrated actress, to perform an impassioned part in one of his 
tragedies, she objected to the violence of his enthusiasm. 
" Mais, monsieur, on me prendroit pour une possedee !" t 
" Eh, mademoiselle," replied the philosophic bard, " il faut 
etre un possede pour reussir en aucun art." 

The degree of enthusiasm, which makes the painter and 
poet set, what to more idle, or more busy mortals, appears an 
imaginary value upon their respective arts, supports the artist 
under the pressure of disappointment and neglect, stimulates 
his exertions, and renders him almost insensible to labour 
and fatigue. Military heroes, or those who are " insane with 
ambition" % endure all the real miseries of life, and brave the 
terrors of death, under the invigorating influence of an ex- 



* Theon. 

t " But, Sir, I shall be taken for one possessed !" " Well, Ma'am, you 
ttaust be like one possessed, if you would succeed in any art." 
% Dr. Darwin. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 389 

travagant imagination. Cure them of their enthusiasm, and 
they are no longer heroes. We must, therefore, decide in 
education, what species of characters we would produce, be- 
fore we can determine what degree, or what habits of imagin- 
ation, are desirable. 

" Je suis le Dieu de la danse !"* exclaimed Vestris ; and 
probably Alexander the Great did not feel more pride in his 
Apotheosis. Had any cynical philosopher undertaken to 
cure Vestris of his vanity, it would not have been a charitable 
action. Vestris might, perhaps, by force of reasoning, have 
been brought to acknowledge that a dancing master was not 
a divinity, but this conviction would not have increased his fe- 
licity ; on the contrary, he would have become wretched in 
proportion as he became rational. The felicity of enthusiasts 
depends upon their being absolutely incapable of reasoning, 
or of listening to reason upon certain subjects ; provided they 
are resolute in repeating their own train of thoughts without 
comparing them with that of others, they may defy the mal- 
ice of wisdom, and in happy ignorance may enjoy perpetual 
delirium. 

Parents who value the happiness of their children, will con- 
sider exactly what chance there is of their enjoying unmolest- 
ed any partial enthusiasm ; they will consider, that by early ex- 
citations, it is very easy to raise any species of ambition in 
the minds of their pupils. The various species of enthusiasm 
necessary to make a poet, a painter, an orator, or a military 
hero, may be inspired, without doubt, by education. How 
far these are connected with happiness, is another question. 
Whatever be the object which he pursues, we must, as much 
as possible, ensure our pupil's success. Those who have 
been excited to exertion by enthusiasm, if they do not obtain 
the reward or admiration which they had been taught to ex- 
pect, sink into helpless despondency. Whether their object has 
been great or small, if it has been their favourite object, and 
they fail of its attainment, their mortification and subsequent lan- 
guor are unavoidable. The wisest of monarchs exclaimed, 
that all was vanity and vexation of spirit ; he did not, per- 
haps, feel more weary of the world than the poor juggler 
felt, who, after educating his hands to the astonishing dexter- 
ity of throwing up into the air, and catching as they fell, six 
eggs successively, without breaking them, received from the 
emperor, before whom he performed, six eggs to reward the 
labour of his life ! 

This poor man's ambition appears obviously absurd ; and 
we are under no immediate apprehension, that parents should 
inspire their children with the enthusiasm necessary to the 



" I am the god of dancing 



390 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

profession of a juggler : but, unless some precautions are 
taken, the objects which excite the ambition of numbers, may 
be placed so as to deceive the eye and imagination of chil- 
dren ; and they may labour through life in pursuit of phan- 
toms. If children early hear their parents express violent 
admiration for riches, rank, power, or fame, they catch a spe- 
cies of enthusiasm for these things, before they can estimate 
justly their value ; from the countenance and manner, they 
draw very important conclusions. " Felicity is painted on 
your countenance," is a polite phrase of salutation in China. 
The taste for looking happy, is not confined to the Chinese : 
the rich and great,* by every artifice of luxury, endeavour 
to impress the spectator with the idea of their superior felic- 
ity, From experience we know, that the external signs of 
delight are not always sincere, and that the apparatus of lux- 
ury is not necessary to happiness. Children who live with 
persons of good sense, learn to separate the ideas of happi- 
ness and a coach and six ; but young people who see their 
fathers, mothers, and preceptors, all smitten with sudden ad- 
miration at the sight of a phaeton, or a fine gentleman, are 
immediately infected with the same absurd enthusiasm. 
These parents do not suspect, that they are perverting the 
imagination of their children, when they call them with fool- 
ish eagerness to the windows to look at a fine equipage, a 
splendid cavalcade, or a military procession ; they perhaps 
summon a boy, who is intended for a merchant, or a lawyer, 
to hear " the spirit stirring drum ;" and they are afterwards 
surprised, if he says, when he is fifteen or sixteen, that, " if 
his father pleases, he had rather go into the army, than go to 
the bar." The mother is alarmed, perhaps, about the same 
time, by an unaccountable predilection in her daughter's fan- 
cy for a red coat, and totally forgets having called the child 
to the window to look at the smart cockades, and to hear the 
tune of " See the conquering hero comes." 

" Hear you me, Jessica," says Shylock to his daughter, 
" lock up my doors ; and when you hear the drum, and the 
vile squeaking of the wry-necked fife, clamber not you up into 
the casements then." 

Shylock's exhortations were vain ; Jessica had arrived at 
years of discretion, and it was too late to forbid her clamber- 
ing into the casements ; the precautions should have been ta- 
ken sooner ; the epithets vile squeaking and wry-necked fife, 
could not alter the lady's taste : and Shylock should have 
known how preremptory prohibitions and exaggerated ex- 
pressions of aversion operate upon the female imagination ; he 
was imprudent in the extreme of his caution. We should let 

* V. Smith's Moral Theory, 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 391 

children see things as they really are, and we should not pre- 
judice them either by our exclamations of rapture, or by our 
affected disgust. If they are familiarized with show, they 
will not be caught by it; if they see the whole of whatever is 
to be seen, their imagination will not paint things more de- 
lightful than they really are. For these reasons, we think 
that young people should not be restrained, though they may 
be guided in their tastes ; we should supply them with all the 
information in which they are deficient, and leave them to 
form their own judgments. 

Without making it a matter of favour, or of extraordinary 
consequence, parents can take their children to see public ex- 
hibitions, or to partake of any amusements which are really 
agreeable ; they can, at the same time, avoid mixing factitious 
with real pleasure. If, for instance, we have an opportunity 
of taking a boy to a good play, or a girl to a ball, let them 
enjoy the full pleasure of the amusement, but do not let us 
excite their imagination by great preparations, or by antici- 
pating remarks : " Oh, you'll be. very happy tomorrow, for 
you're to go to the play. You must look well to-night for you 
are going to the ball. Were you never at a ball? Did you 
never see a play before. Oh, then you'll be delighted I'm 
sure !" The children often look much more sensible, and 
sometimes more composed, in the midst of these foolish excla- 
mations, than their parents. " Est ce que je m'amuse, ma- 
man ?" said a little girl of six years old, the first time she was 
taken to the playhouse. 

Besides the influence of opinion, there are a number of 
other circumstances to be considered in cultivating the imagi- 
nation ; there are many other circumstances which must be 
attended to, and different precautions are necessary, to regu- 
late properly the imagination of children of different dispo- 
sitions, or temperaments. The disposition to associate 
ideas, varies in strength and quickness in opposite tem- 
peraments : the natural vivacity or dulness of the senses, 
the habit of observing external objects, the power of voluntary 
exertion, and the propensity to reverie, must all be consider- 
ed before we can adapt a plan of education exactly to the 
pupil's advantage. A wise preceptor will counteract, as much 
as possible, all those defects to which a child may appear 
most liable, and will cultivate his imagination so as to prevent 
the errors to which he is most exposed by natural, or what 
we call natural, disposition. 

Some children appear to feel sensations of pleasure or pain 
with more energy than others ; they take more delight in feel- 
ing than in reflection ; they have neither much leisure nor 
much inclination for the intellectual exertions of comparison 
-or deliberation. Great care should be taken to encourage 



392 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

children of this temper to describe and to compare their sen- 
sations. By their descriptions we shall judge what motives 
we ought to employ to govern them, and if we can teach them 
to compare their feelings, we shall induce that voluntary ex- 
ertion of mind in which they are naturally defective. We 
cannot compare or judge of our sensations without voluntary 
exertion. When we deliberate, we repeat our ideas deliber- 
ately; and this is an exercise peculiarly useful to those who 
feel quickly. 

When any pleasure makes too great an impression upon 
these children of vivid sensations, we should repeat the plea- 
sure frequently, till it begins to fatigue ; or we should con- 
trast it, and bring it into direct comparison with some other 
species of pleasure. For instance, suppose a boy had ap- 
peared highly delighted with seeing a game at cards, and that 
we were apprehensive he might, from this early association, 
acquire a taste for gaming, we might either repeat the amuse- 
ment till the playing of cards began to weary the boy, or we 
might take him immediately after playing at cards to an in- 
teresting comedy ; probably the amusement he would re- 
ceive at the playhouse, would be greater than that which he 
had enjoyed at the card-table ; and as these two species of 
pleasure would immediately succeed to each other, the child 
could scarcely avoid comparing them. Is it necessary to re- 
peat, that all this should be done without any artifice ? The 
child should know the meaning of our conduct, and then he 
will never set himself in opposition to our management. 

If it is not convenient, or possible, to dull the charm of no- 
velty by repetition, or to contrast a new pleasure with some 
other superior amusement, there is another expedient which 
may be useful ; we may call the power of association to our 
assistance; this power is sometimes a full match for the most 
lively sensations. For instance, suppose a boy of strong feel- 
ings had been offended by some trifle, and expressed sensa- 
itions of hatred against the offender obviously too violent for 
the occasion ; to bring the angry boy's imagination to a tem- 
perate state, we might recall some circumstance of his former 
affection for the offender; or the general idea, that it is amia- 
ble and noble to command our passion, and to forgive those 
who have injured us. At the sight of his mother, with whom 
he had many agreeable associations, the imagination of Corio- 
lanus raised up instantly a train of ideas connected with the 
love of his family, and of his country, and immediately the 
violence of his sensations of anger were subdued. 

Brutus, after his friend Cassius has apologized to him for 
his " rash humour," by saying, " that it was hereditary from 
his mother," promises that the next time Cassius is over-earn- 
est with " his Brutus, he will think his mother chides, and 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION* 393 

leave him so ;" that is to say, Brutus promises to recollect an 
association of ideas, which shall enable him to bear with his 
friend's ill humour. 

Children, who associate ideas very strongly and with ra- 
pidity,* must be educated with continual attention. With 
children of this class, the slightest circumstances are of con-^ 
sequence ; they may at first appear to be easily managed, 
because they will remember pertinaciously any reproof, any 
reward or punishment ; and, from association^ they will scru- 
pulously avoid or follow what has, in any one instance, been 
joined with pain or pleasure in their imagination : but unfor- 
tunately, accidental events will influence them, as well as the 
rewards and punishments of their preceptors ; and a variety 
of associations will be formed, which may secretly govern 
them long before their existence is suspected. We shall be 
surprised to find^ that even where there is apparently no 
hope, or fear, or passion, to disturb their judgment, they can- 
not reason, or understand reasoning. On studying them more 
closely, we shall discover the cause of this seeming imbecility, 
A multitude of associated ideas occur to them upon whatever 
subject we attempt to reason, which distract their attention, 
and make them change the terms of every proposition with 
incessant variety. Their pleasures are chiefly secondary re- 
flected pleasures, and they do not judge by their actual sensa- 
tions so much as by their associations. They like and dis- 
like without being able to assign any sufficient cause for their 
preference or aversion. They make a choice frequently 
without appearing to deliberate ; and if you, by persuading 
them to a more detailed examination of the objects, convince 
them, that according to the common standard of good and 
evil, they have made a foolish choice, they will still seem 
puzzled and uncertain ; and, if you leave them at liberty, 
will persist in their original determination. By this criterion 
we may decide, that they are influenced by some secret false 
association of ideas ; and, instead of arguing with them upon 
the obvious folly of their present choice, we should endeav- 
our to make them trace back their ideas, and discover the as- 
sociation by which they are governed. In some cases this 
may be out of their power, because the original association 
may have been totally forgotten, and yet those connected 
with it may continue to act : but even when we cannot suc- 
ceed in any particular instance in detecting the cause of the 
error, we shall do the pupils material service by exciting 
them to observe their own minds. A tutor, who carefully re- 
marks the circumstances in which a child expresses uncom- 

* Temperament of increased association. ZoojVomia. 

50 



394 PRACTICAL EDUCATION, 

mon grief or joy, hope or fear, may obtain complete know- 
ledge of his associations, and may accurately distinguish the 
proximate and remote causes of all his pupil's desires and 
aversions. He will then have absolute command over the 
child's mind, and he should upon no account trust his pupil 
to the direction of any other person. Another tutor, though 
perhaps of equal ability, could not be equally secure of suc- 
cess ; the child would probably be suspected of cunning, ca- 
price, or obstinacy, because the causes of his tastes and judg- 
ments could not be discovered by his new preceptor. 

It often happens, that those who feel pleasure and pain most 
strongly, are likewise most disposed to form strong associa- 
tions of ideas.* Children of this character are never stupid, 
but often prejudiced and passionate : they can readily assign a 
reason for their preference or aversion ; they recollect distinct- 
ly the original sensations of pleasure or pain, on which their as- 
sociations depend ; they do not, like Mr. Transfer in Zeluco, 
like or dislike persons and things, because they have beenused 
to them, but because they have received some injury or benefit 
from them. Such children are apt to make great mistakes in 
reasoning, from their registering of coincidences hastily ; 
they do not wait to repeat their experiments, but if they have 
in one instance observed two things to happen at the same 
time, they expect that they will always recur together. If 
one event precedes or follows another accidentally, they be- 
lieve it to be the cause or effect of its concomitant, and 
this belief is not to be shaken in their minds by ridicule or 
argument. They are, consequently, inclined both to super- 
stition and enthusiasm, accordingly as their hopes and fears 
predominate. They are likewise subject to absurd antipa- 
thies — antipathies which verge towards insanity. 

Dr. Darwin relates a strong instance of antipathy in a child 
from association. The child, on tasting the gristle of stur- 
geon, asked what gristle was? and was answered, that gristle 
was like the division of a man's nose. The child, disgusted 
at this idea, for twenty years afterwards could never be per- 
suaded to taste sturgeon.! 

Zimmermann assures us, that he was an eye-witness of a 
singular antipathy, which we may be permitted to describe 
in his own words : 

" Happening to be in company with some English gentle- 
men, all of them men of distinction, the conversation fell up- 
on antipathies. Many of the company denied their reality, 
and considered them as idle stories, but I assured them that 
■ * 

** V. Zoonomia. Temperament of increased sensibility and association 
joined. 

+ Zoonomia, vol. ii. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 395 

they were truly a disease. Mr. William Matthews, son to the 
governor of Barbadoes, was of my opinion, because he him- 
self had an antipathy to spiders. The rest of the company 
laughed at him. 1 undertook to prove to them that this an- 
tipathy was really an impression on his soul, resulting from the 
determination of a mechanical effect. (We do not pretend to 
know what Dr. Zimmerman n means by this.) Lord John 
Murray undertook to shape some black wax into the appear- 
ance of a spider, with a view to observe whether the antipa- 
thy would take place at the simple figure of the insect. He 
then withdrew for a moment, and came in again with the wax 
in his hand, which he kept shut. Mr. Matthews, who in oth- 
er respects was a very amiable and moderate man, immedi- 
ately conceiving that his friend really had a spider in his 
hand, clapped his hand to his sword with extreme fury, and 
running back towards the partition, cried out most horribly. 
All the muscles of his face were swelled, his eyes were rolling 
in their sockets, and his body was immoveable. W r e were all 
exceedingly alarmed, and immediately ran to his assistance, 
took his sword from him, and assured him that what he con- 
ceived to be a spider, was nothing more than a bit of wax, 
which he might see upon the table. 

■" He remained some time in this spasmodic state ; but at 
length he began to recover, and to deplore the horrible pas- 
sion from which he still suffered. His pulse was very strong 
and quick, and his whole body was covered with a cold per- 
spiration. After taking an anodyne draft, he resumed his us- 
ual tranquillity. 

" We are not to wonder at this antipathy," continues Zim- 
mermann ; " the spiders at Barbadoes are very large, and of 
an hideous figure. Mr. Matthews was born there, and his an- 
tipathy was therefore to be accounted for. Some of the com-- 
pany undertook to make a little waxen spider in his presence. 
He saw this done with great tranquillity, but he could not be 
persuaded to touch it, though he was by no means a timorous 
man in other respects. Nor would he follow my advice to 
endeavour to conquer this antipathy by first drawing parts of 
spiders of different sorts, and after time whole spiders, till at 
length he might be able to look at portions of real spiders, 
and thus gradually accustom himself to whole ones, at first 
dead, and then living ones."* 

Dr. Zimmermann's method of cure, appears rather more 
ingenious, than his way of accounting for the disease. Are 
all the natives of Barbadoes subject to convulsions at the sight 
of the large spiders in that island ? or why does Mr. William 

* Monthly Review of Zimmcrmanu on Experience in Phvsjc, March 1783, 
pag'e 211. 



3*J6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Matthews' having been born there account so satisfactorily 
for his antipathy ? 

The cure of these unreasonable fears of harmless animals, 
like all other antipathies, would, perhaps, be easily effected, 
if it were judiciously attempted early in life, The epithets 
which we use in speaking of animals, and our expressions of 
countenance, have great influence on the minds of children. 
If we, as Dr. Darwin advises, call the spider the ingenious spi- 
der, and the frog the harmless frog, and if we look at them 
with complacency, instead of aversion, children, from sympa- 
thy, will imitate our manner, and from curiosity will attend to 
the animals, to discover whether the commendatory epithets 
we bestow upon them, are just. 

It is comparatively of little consequence to conquer antip- 
athies which have trifling objects. An individual can go 
through life very well without eating sturgeon, or touching 
spiders ; but when we consider the influence of the same dis- 
position to associate false ideas too strongly in more impor- 
tant instances, we shall perceive the necessity of correcting 
it by education. 

Locke tells us of a young man, who, having been accus- 
tomed to see an old trunk in the room with him when he learn- 
ed to dance, associated his dancing exertions so strongly with 
the sight of this trunk, that he could not succeed by any vol- 
untary efforts in its absence. We have, in our remarks upon 
attention,* pointed out the great inconveniences to which 
those are exposed who acquire associated habits of intellectual 
exertion ; who cannot speak, or write, or think, without cer- 
tain habitual aids to their memory or imagination. We must 
further observe, that incessant vigilance is necessary in the 
moral education of children disposed to form strong associa- 
tions ; they are liable to sudden and absurd dislikes or predi- 
lections, with respect to persons, as well as things ; they are 
subject to caprice in their affections and temper, and liable to 
a variety of mental infirmities, which, in different degrees, we 
call passion or madness. Locke tells us, that he knew a man 
who, after having been restored to health by a painful opera- 
tion, had so strongly associated the idea and figure of the ope- 
rator with the agony he had endured, that though he acknowl- 
edged the obligation, and felt gratitude towards this friend 
who had saved him, he never afterwards could bear to see 
his benefactor. There are some people who associate so 
readily and incorrigibly the idea of any pain or insult they 
have received from another, with his person and character, 
that they can never afterwards forget or forgive. They are 
hence disposed to all the intemperance of hatred and re* 

* V. Chapter on Attention. 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 397 

venge ; to the chronic malice of a Jago, or the acute pangs of 
an Achilles. Homer, in his speech of Achilles to Agamem- 
non's mediating ambassadors, has drawn a strong and natural 
picture of the progress of anger. It is worth studying as a 
lesson in metaphysics. Whenever association suggests to the 
mind of Achilles the injury he has received, he loses his rea- 
son, and the orator works himself up from argument to decla- 
mation, and from declamation to desperate resolution, through 
a close linked connexion of ideas and sensations. 

The insanities of ambition, avarice, and vanitj^, originate in 
early mistaken associations. A feather, or a crown, or an 
alderman's chain, or a cardinal's hat, or a purse of yellow 
counters, are unluckily associated in the minds of some men 
with the idea of happiness, and, without staying to deliberate, 
these unfortunate persons hunt through life the phantasms of 
a disordered imagination. Whilst we pity, we are amused 
by the blindness and blunders of those whose mistakes can 
affect no one's felicity but their own ; but any delusions which 
prompt their victims to actions inimical to their fellow-crea- 
tures, are the objects not unusually of pity, but of indignation, 
of private aversion and public punishment. We smile at the 
avaricious insanity of the miser, who dresses himself in the 
cast-off wig of a beggar, and pulls a crushed pancake from his 
pocket for his own and for his friend's dinner.* We smile 
at the insane vanity of the pauper, who dressed himself 
in a many-coloured paper star, assumed the title of Duke 
of Baubleshire, and as such required homage from every pas- 
senger.! But are we inclined to smile at the outrageous van- 
ity of the man who styled himself the son of Jupiter, and who 
murdered his best friend for refusing him divine honours ? 
Are we disposed to pity the slave-merchant, who, urged by 
the maniacal desire for gold, hears unmoved the groans of 
his fellow-creatures, the execrations of mankind, and that 
" small still voice," which haunts those who are stained with 
blood. 

The moral insanities which strike us with horror, compas- 
sion, or ridicule, however they may differ in their effects, 
have frequently one common origin ; an early false associa- 
tion of ideas. Persons who mistake in measuring their own 
feelings, or who neglect to compare their ideas, and to bal- 
ance contending wishes, scarcely merit the name of rational 
creatures. The man, who does not deliberate, is lost. 

We have endeavoured, though well aware of the difficulty 
of the subject, to point out some of the precautions that should 
be used in governing the imagination of young people of dif- 
ferent dispositions. We should add, that in all cases the pu- 

* Elwes. See his Life. 

i There is an account of this poor man's death in the Star, 1796. 



398 PRACTICAL EDUCATIOS. 

pil's attention to his own mind will be of more consequence, 
than the utmost vigilance of the most able preceptor ; the 
sooner he is made acquainted with his own character, and the 
sooner he can be excited to govern himself by reason, or to 
attempt the cure of his own defects, the better. 

There is one habit of the imagination to which we have not 
yet adverted, the habit of reverie. In reverie we are so 
intent upon a particular train of ideas, that we are uncon- 
scious of all external objects, and we exert but little volunta- 
ry power. It is true that some persons in castle-building both 
reason and invent, and therefore must exert some degree of 
volition ; even in the wildest reverie, there may be traced 
some species of consistency, some connexion amongst the 
ideas ; but this is simply the result of the association of ideas. 
Intentive castle-builders are rather nearer the state of insan- 
ity than of reverie ; they reason well upon false principles ; 
their airy fabrics are often both in good taste and in good 
proportion ; nothing is wanting to them but a foundation. On 
the contrary, nothing can be more silly than the reveries of 
silly people ; they are not only defective in consistency, but 
they want all the unities ; they are not extravagant, but they 
are stupid ; they consist usuallj 7, of a listless reiteration of 
uninteresting ideas • the whole pleasure enjoyed by those ad- 
dicted to them consists in the facility of repetition. 

It is a mistaken notion, that only people of ardent imagina- 
tions are disposed to reverie ; the most indolent and stupid 
persons waste their existence in this indulgence ; they do not 
act always in consequence of their dreams, therefore we do 
not detect their folly. Young people of active minds, 
when they have not sufficient occupation, necessarily indulge 
in reverie ; and, by degrees, this wild exercise of their inven- 
tion and imagination becomes so delightful to them, that they 
prefer it to all sober employments. 

Mr. Williams, in his Lectures upon Education, gives an ac- 
count of a boy singularly addicted to reverie. The desire of 
invisibility had seized his mind, and for several years he had 
indulged his fancy with imagining all the pleasures that he 
should command, and all the feats that he could perform, if 
he were in possession of Gyges's ring. The reader should, 
however, be informed, that this castle-builder was not a youth 
of strict veracity ; his confession upon this occasion, as upon 
others, might not have been sincere. We only state the sto- 
ry from Mr. Williams. 

To prevent children from acquiring a taste for reverie, let 
them have various occupations both of mind and body. Let 
us not direct their imagination to extraordinary future pleas- 
ures, but let us suffer them to enjoy the present. Anticipa- 
tion is a species of reverie ; and children, who have promises 



TASTE AND IMAGINATION. 399 

of future pleasures frequently made to them, live in a continual 
state of anticipation. 

To cure the habit of reverie when it has once been formed, 
we must take different methods with different tempers. With 
those who indulge in the stupid reverie, we should employ 
strong excitations, and present to the senses a rapid succession 
of objects,which will completely engage without fatiguing them. 
This mode must not be followed with children of different dis- 
positions,else we should increase, instead of curing, the disease. 
The most likely method to break this habit in children of 
great quickness or sensibility, is to set them to some employ- 
ment which is wholly new to them, and which will consequently 
exercise and exhaust all their faculties, so that they shall 
have no life left for castle-building. Monotonous occupations, 
such as copying, drawing, or writing, playing on the harpsi- 
chord, &c. are not, if habit has made them easy to the pupil, fit 
for our purpose. We may all perceive, that in such occupa- 
tions, the powers of the mind are left unexercised. We can 
frequently read aloud with tolerable emphasis for a consider- 
able time together, and at the same time think upon some 
subject foreign to the book we hold in our hands. 

The most difficult exercises of the mind, such as invention, 
or strict reasoning, are those alone which are sufficient to sub- 
jugate and chain down the imagination of some active spirits. 
To such laborious exercises they should be excited by the 
encouraging voice of praise and affection. Imaginative chil- 
dren will be more disposed to invent than to reason, but they 
cannot perfect any invention without reasoning ; there will, 
therefore, be a mixture of what they like and dislike in the 
exercise of invention, and the habit of reasoning will, per- 
haps, gradually become agreeable to them, if it be thus dex- 
terously united with the pleasures of the imagination. 

So much has already been written by various authors up- 
on the pleasures and the dangers of imagination, that we 
could scarcely hope to add any thing new to what they have 
produced : but we have endeavoured to arrange the observa- 
tions which appeared most applicable to practical education ; 
we have pointed out how the principles of taste may be early 
taught without injury to the general understanding, and how 
the imagination should be prepared for the higher pleasures of 
eloquence and poetry. We have attempted to define the 
boundaries between the enthusiasm of genius, and its extrava- 
gance ; and to show some of the precautions which may be 
used, to prevent the moral defects to which persons of ardent 
imagination are usually subject. The degree in which the 
imagination should be cultivated must, we have observed, be 
determined by the views which parents may have for their 



400 1'RACTICAI, EDUCATION. 

children, by their situation in society, and by the professions 
for which they are destined. Under the government of a 
sober judgment, the powers of the imagination must be ad- 
vantageous in every situation ; but their value to society, and 
to the individuals by whom they are possessed, depends ul- 
timately upon the manner in which they are managed. A 
magician, under the control of a philosopher, would perform 
not only great, but useful wonders. The homely proverb, 
which has been applied to fire, may with equal truth be ap- 
plied to imagination : " It is a good servant, but a bad mas- 
ter." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ON WIT AND JUDGMENT. 

It has been shown, that the powers of memory, invention 
and imagination, ought to be rendered subservient to judg- 
ment : it has been shown, that reasoning and judgment 
abridge the labours of memory, and are necessary to regu- 
late the highest flights of imagination. We shall consider 
the power of reasoning in another view, as being essential 
to our conduct in life. The object of reasoning is to adapt 
means to an end, to attain the command of effects by the dis- 
covery of the causes on which they depend. 

Until children have acquired some knowledge of effects, 
they cannot inquire into causes. Observation must precede 
reasoning ; and as judgment is nothing more than the percep- 
tion of the result of comparison, we should never urge our 
pupils to judge, until they have acquired some portion of ex- 
perience. 

To teach children to compare objects exactly, we should 
place the things to be examined distinctly before them. Ev- 
ery thing that is superfluous, should be taken away, and a 
sufficient motive should be given to excite the pupil's atten- 
tion. We need not here repeat the advice that has formerly 
been given* respecting the choice of proper motives to excite 
and fix attention ; or the precautions necessary to prevent 
the pain of fatigue, and of unsuccessful application. If com- 
parison be early rendered a task to children, they will dis- 
like and avoid this exercise of the mind, and they will conse- 
quently show an inaptitude to reason : if comparing objects 

* V. Chapter on Attention. 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 40l 

be made interesting and amusing to our pupils, they will soon 
become expert in discovering resemblances and differences ; 
and thus they will be prepared for reasoning. 

Rousseau has judiciously advised, that tlie senses of chil- 
dren should be cultivated with the utmost care. In propor- 
tion to the distinctness of their perceptions, will be the accu- 
racy of their memory, and, probably, also the precision of 
their judgment. A child, who sees imperfectly, cannot rea- 
son justly about the objects of sight, because he has not suffi- 
cient data. A child, who does not hear distinctly, cannot 
judge well of sounds ; and, if we could suppose the sense of 
touch to be twice as accurate in one child as in another, we 
might conclude, that the judgment of these children must dif- 
fer in a similar proportion. The defects in organization are 
not within the power of the preceptor 5 but we may observe, 
that inattention, and want of exercise, are frequently the cau- 
ses of what appear to be natural defects ; and, on the contra- 
ry, increased attention and cultivation sometimes produce 
that quickness of eye and ear, and that consequent readiness 
of judgment, which we are apt to attribute to natural superi- 
ority of organization or capacity. Even amongst children, 
we may early observe a considerable difference between the 
quickness of their senses and of their reasoning upon subjects 
where they have had experience, and upon those on which 
they have not been exercised. 

The first exercises for the judgment of children should, as 
Rousseau recommends, relate to visible and tangible substan- 
ces. Let them compare the size and shape of different ob- 
jects; let them frequently try what they can lift; what they 
can reach 5 at what distance they can see objects ; at what 
distance they can hear sounds : by these exercises they will 
learn to judge of distances and weight ; and they may learn 
to judge of the solid contents of bodies of different shapes, by 
comparing the observations of their sense of feeling and of 
sight. The measure of hollow bodies can be easily taken 
by pouring liquids into them, and then comparing the quanti- 
ties of the liquids that fill vessels of different shapes., This is 
a very simple method of exercising the judgment of children ; 
and, if they are allowed to try these little experiments for 
themselves, the amusement will fix the facts in their memory, 
and will associate pleasure with the habits of comparison* 
Rousseau rewards Emilius with cakes when he judges rightly; 
success, we think, is a better reward. Rousseau was himself 
childishly fond of cakes and cream. 

The step which immediately follows comparison, is deduc- 
tion. The cat is larger than the kitten ; then a hole through 
which the cat can go, must be larger than a hole through 
51 



402 ntACTlCAt EDUCATION, 

which the kitten can go. Long before a child can put this 
reasoning into words, he is capable of forming the conclusion, 
and we need not be in haste to make him announce it in mode 
and figure. We may see by the various methods which 
young children employ to reach what is above them, to drag, 
to push, to lift different bodies, that they reason ; that is to say, 
that they adapt means to an end, before they can explain 
their own designs in words. Look at a child building a house 
of cards ; he dexterously balances every card as he floors 
the edifice ; he raises story over story, and shows us that he 
has some design in view, though he would be utterly incapa- 
ble of describing his intentions previously in words. We 
have formerly* endeavoured to show how the vocabulary of 
our pupils may be gradually enlarged, exactly -in proportion 
to their real knowledge. A great deal depends upon our at- 
tention to this proportion ; if children have not a sufficient 
number of words to make their thoughts intelligible, we cannot 
assist them to reason by our conversation, we cannot commu- 
nicate to them the result of our experience; they will have a 
great deal of useless labour in comparing objects, because 
they will not be able to understand the evidence of others, as 
they do not understand their language ; and at last, the rea- 
sonings which they carry on in their own minds will be con- 
fused for want of signs to keep them distinct. On the con- 
trary, if their vocabulary exceed their ideas., if they are 
taught a variety of words to which they connect no accurate 
meaning, it is impossible that they should express their 
thoughts with precision. As this is one of the most common 
errors in education, we shall dwell upon it more particularly. 
We have pointed out the mischief which is done to the under- 
standing of children by the nonsensical conversation of common 
acquaintance.! " Should you like to be a king? What are 
you to be ? Are you to be a bishop, or a judge ? Had you rath- 
er be a general, or an admiral, my little dear?" are some of the 
questions which every one has probably heard proposed to 
children of five or six years old. Children who have not learn- 
ed by rote the expected answers to such interrogatories, stand 
in amazed silence upon these occasions ; or else answer at ran- 
dom, having no possible means of forming any judgment upon 
such subjects. We have often thought, in listening to the con- 
versations of grown up people with children that the children 
reasoned infinitely better than their opponents. People, who 
are not interested in the education of children, do not 
care what arguments they use, what absurdities they utter in 
talking to them; they usually talk to them of things which are 
totally above their comprehension ; and they instil error and 

* V. Tasks. t Chapter on Acquaintance. 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 403 

prejudice, without the smallest degree of compunction ; in- 
deed, without in the least knowing what they are about. We 
earnestly repeat our advice to parents, to keep their children 
as much as possible from such conversation : children will 
never reason, if they are allowed to hear or to talk nonsense. 

When we say, that children should not be suffered to talk 
nonsense, we should observe, that unless they have been in the 
habit of hearing foolish conversation, they very seldom talk 
nonsense. They may express themselves in a manner which 
we do not understand, or they may make mistakes from not 
accurately comprehending the words of others ; but in these 
cases, we should not reprove or silence them ; we should pa- 
tiently endeavour to find out their hidden meaning. If we 
rebuke or ridicule them, we shall intimidate them, and either 
lessen their confidence in themselves or in us. In the one 
case, we prevent them from thinking ; in the other, we deter 
them from communicating their thoughts ; and thus we pre- 
clude ourselves from the possibility of assisting them in rea- 
soning. To show parents the nature of the mistakes which 
children make from their imperfect knowledge of words, we 
shall give a few examples from real life. 

S -, at five years old, when he heard some one speak of 

bay horses, said he supposed that the bay horses must be the 
best horses. Upon cross-questioning him, it appeared that he 
was led to this conclusion by the analogy between the sound 
of the words bay and obey. A few days previous to this, his 
father had told him that spirited horses were always the most 
ready to obey. 

These erroneous analogies between the sound of words 
and their sense, frequently mislead children in reasoning; we 
should, therefore, encourage children to explain themselves 
fully, that we may rectify their errors. 

When S was between four and five years old, a lady 

who had taken him upon her lap playfully, put her hands be- 
fore his eyes, and (we believe) asked if he liked to be blind- 
ed. S said no ; and he looked very thoughtful. After 
a pause, he added, H Smellie says, that children like better 

to be blinded than to have their legs tied." (S -had read 

this in Smellie two or three days before.) 

Father. " Are you of Smellie's opinion ?" 

S hesitated. 

Father. " Would you rather be blinded, or have your legs 
tied ?" 

S . " I would rather have my legs tied not quite 

tight." 

Father. " Do you know what is meant by blinded ?" 

S . " Having their eyes put out. 

Father. " How do you mean ? ? ' 



404 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

S . " To put something into the eye to make the 

blood burst out ; and then the blood would come all over it, 
and cover it, and stick to it, and hinder them from seeing — I 
don't know how." 

It is obvious, that whilst this boy's imagination pictured to 
him a bloody orb when he heard the word blinded, he was 
perfectly right in his reasoning in preferring to have his legs 
tied ; but he did not judge of the proposition meant to be 
laid before him ; he judged of another which he had formed 
for himself. His father explained to him, that Smellie meant 
blindfolded, instead of blinded ; a handkerchief was then 
tied round the boy's head, so as to hinder him from seeing, 
and he was made perfectly to understand the meaning of the 
word blindfolded. 

In such trifles as these, it may appear of little consequence 
to rectify the verbal errors of children ; but exactly the same 
species of mistake, will prevent them from reasoning accu- 
rately in matters of consequence. It will not cost us much 
more trouble to detect these mistakes when the causes of 
them are yet recent ; but it will give us infinite trouble to re- 
trace thoughts which have passed in infancy. When preju- 
dices, or the habits of reasoning inaccurately, have been 
formed, we cannot easily discover or remedy the remote tri- 
fling origin of the evil. 

When children begin to inquire about causes, they are not 
able to distinguish between coincidence and causation : we 
formerly observed the effect which this ignorance produces 
upon their "temper ; we must now observe its effect upon 
their understanding. A little reflection upon our own minds, 
will prevent us from feeling that stupid amazement, or from 
expressing that insulting contempt which the natural thoughts 
of children sometimes excite in persons who have frequently 
less understanding than their pupils. What account can we 
give of the connexion between cause and effect ? How is 
the idea, that one thing is the cause of another, first produced 
in our minds ? All that we know is, that amongst human 
events, those which precede, are in some cases, supposed to 
produce what follow. When we have observed, in several 
instances, that one event constantly precedes another, 
we believe, and expect, that these events will in future recur 
together. Before children have had experience, it is scarce- 
ly possible that they should distinguish between fortuitous cir- 
cumstances and causation ; accidental coincidences of time, 
and juxta-position, continually lead them into error. We 
should not accuse children of reasoning ill : we should not 
imagine that they are defective in judgment, when they make 
mistakes from deficient experience ; we should only endeav- 
our to make them delay to decide until they have repeated 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 405 

their experiments ; and, at all events, we should encourage 
them to lay open their minds to us, that we may assist them 
by our superior knowledge. 

This spring, little W (three years old) was looking at 

a man who was mowing the grass before the door. It had 
been raining, and when the sun shone, the vapour began to 
rise from the grass. " Does the man mowing make the smoke 
rise from the grass ?" said the little boy. He was not laugh- 
ed at for this simple question. The man's mowing immediate- 
ly preceded the rising of the vapour ; the child had never 
observed a man mowing before, and it was absolutely impos- 
sible that he could tell what effects might be produced by it ; 
he very naturally imagined, that the event which immediate- 
ly preceded the rising of the vapour, was the cause of its 
rise ; the sun was at a distance ; the scythe was near the 
grass. The little boy showed by the tone of his inquiry, that 
he was in the philosophic state of doubt ; had he been ridi- 
culed for his question ; had he been told that he talked non- 
sense, he would not, upon another occasion, have told us his 
thoughts, and he certainly could not have improved in rea- 
soning. 

The way to improve children in their judgment with re- 
spect to causation, is to increase their knowledge, and to lead 
them to try experiments by which they may discover what 
circumstances are essential to the production of any given ef- 
fect ; and what are merely accessory, unimportant concom- 
itants of the event.* 

A child who, for the first time, sees blue and red paints 
mixed together to produce purple, could not be certain that 
the pallet on which these colours were mixed, the spatula 
with which they were tempered, were not necessary circum- 
stances. In many cases, the vessels in which things are mix- 
ed are essential; therefore, a sensible child would repeat the 
experiment exactly in the same manner in which he had seen 
it succeed. This exactness should not be suffered to become 
indolent imitation, or superstitious adherence to partic- 
ular forms. Children should be excited to add or deduct 
particulars in trying experiments, and to observe the effects 
of these changes. In " Chemistry," and " Mechanics," we 
have pointed out a variety of occupations, in which the judg- 
ment of children may be exercised upon the immediate ob- 
jects of their senses. 

It is natural, perhaps, that we should expect our pupils to 
show surprise at those things which excite surprise in our 



* V. Stewart. 



40G PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

minds ; but we should consider that almost every thing is 
new to children ; and, therefore, there is scarcely any grada- 
tion in their astonishment. A child of three or four years 
old, would be as much amused, and probably, as much sur- 
prised, by seeing a paper kite fly, as he could by beholding 
the ascent of a balloon. We should not attribute this to stu- 
pidity, or want of judgment, but simply to ignorance. 

A few days ago, W (three years old) who was learn- 
ing his letters, was let sow an o in the garden with mustard 

seed. W was much pleased with the operation. When 

the green plants appeared above ground, it was expected that 

W w T ould be much surprised at seeing the exact shape 

of his o. He was taken to look at it ; but he showed no sur- 
prise, no sort of emotion. 

We have advised that the judgment of children should be 
exercised upon the objects of their senses. It is scarcely pos- 
sible that they should reason upon the subjects which are 
sometimes proposed to them : with respect to manners and 
society, they have had no experience, consequently they can 
form no judgments. By imprudently endeavouring to turn 
the attention of children to conversation that is unsuited to 
them, people may give the appearance of early intelligence, 
and a certain readiness of repartee and fluency of expres- 
sion ; but these are transient advantages. Smart, witty chil- 
dren, amuse the circle for a few hours, and are forgotten : 
and we may observe, that almost all children w r ho are prais- 
ed and admired for sprightliness and wit, reason absurdly, 
and continue ignorant. Wit and judgment depend upon dif- 
ferent opposite habits of the mind. Wit searches for remote 
resemblances between objects or thoughts apparently dissim- 
ilar. Judgment compares the objects placed before it, in or- 
der to find out their differences, rather than their resemblan- 
ces. The comparisons of judgment may be slow : those of 
wit must be rapid. The same power of attention in children, 
may produce either wit or judgment. Parents must decide 
in which faculty, or rather, in which of these habits of the 
mind, they wish their pupils to excel : and they must con- 
duct their education accordingly. Those who are desirous 
to make their pupils w 7 itty, must sacrifice some portion of 
their judgment to the acquisition of the talent for wit ; they 
must allow their children to talk frequently at random. 
Amongst a multitude of hazarded observations, a happy hit 
is now and then made : for these happy hits, children who are 
to be made wits should be praised ; and they must acquire 
sufficient courage to speak from a cursory view of things ; 
therefore the mistakes they make from superficial examina- 
tion must not be pointed out to them ; their attention must be 
turned to the comic, rather than to the serious side of objects : 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 407 

they must study the different meanings and powers of words ; 
they should hear witty conversation, read epigrams, and com- 
edies ; and in all company they should be exercised before 
numbers in smart dialogue and repartee. 

When we mention the methods of educating a child to be 
witty, we at the same time point out the dangers of this edu- 
cation ; and it is but just to warn parents against expecting 
inconsistent qualities from their pupils. Those who steadily 
prefer the solid advantages of judgment, to the transient bril- 
liancy of wit, should not be mortified when they see their 
children, perhaps, deficient at nine or ten years old in the 
sjhowy talents for general conversation ; they must bear to 
see their pupils appear slow ; they must bear the contrast of 
flippant gaiety and sober simplicity ; they must pursue exact- 
ly an opposite course to that which has been recommended 
for the education of wits ; they must never praise their pupils 
for hazarding observations ; they must cautiously point out 
any mistakes that are made from a precipitate survey of ob- 
jects ; they should not harden their pupils against that feeling 
of shame, which arises in the mind from the perception of 
having uttered an absurdity ; they should never encourage 
their pupils to play upon words ; and their admiration of wit 
should never be vehemently or enthusiastically expressed. 

We shall give a few examples to convince parents, that 
children, whose reasoning powers have been cultivated, are 
rather slow in comprehending and in admiring wit. They 
require to have it explained, they want to settle the exact 
justice and morality of the repartee, before they will admire it. 

(November 20th, 1796.) To-day at dinner the conversa- 
tion happened to turn upon wit. Somebody mentioned the 

well known reply of the hackney coachman to Pope. S , 

a boy of nine years old, listened attentively, but did not seem 
to understand it ; his father endeavoured to explain it to him. 
" Pope was a little ill-made man ; his favourite exclamation 
was, ' God mend me !' Now, when he was in a passion with 
the hackney coachman, he cried as usual, ' God mend me !' 
1 Mend you, sir ?' said the coachman ; ' it would be easier to 
make a new one.' Do you understand this now, S— — ?" 

S looked dull upon it, and, after some minutes consid- 
eration, said, " Yes, Pope was ill made ; the man meant it 

would be better to make a new one than to mend him." S 

did not yet seem to taste the wit ; he took the answer literal- 
ly, and understood it soberly. 

Immediately afterwards, the officer's famous reply to Pope 

was told to S . About ten days after this conversation, 

S said to his sister, " I wonder, M , that people don't 

oftener laugh at crooked people ; like the officer who called 
Pope a note of interrogation." 



408 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

M . " It would be ill natured to laugh at them." 

S . " But you all praised that man for saying that 

about Pope. You did not think him ill natured." 

Mr. . " No, because Pope had been impertinent to 

him." 

S * " How ?" 

M -. " Don't you remember, that when the officer said 

that a note of interrogation would make the passage clear, 
Pope turned round, and looking at him with great contempt, 
asked if he knew what a note of interrogation was V 

S . " Yes, 1 remember that ; but I do not think that 

was very impertinent, because Pope might not know whether 
the man knew it or not." 

Mr. . " Very true : but then you see, that Pope 

took it for granted that the officer was extremely ignorant ; a 
boy who is just learning to read knows what a note of inter- 
rogation is." 

S (thoughtfully.) " Yes, it was rude of Pope ; but 

then the man was an officer, and therefore, it was very likely 
that he might be ignorant ; you know you said that officers 
were often very ignorant." 

Mr. . " I said often ; but not always. Young men, I 

told you, who are tired of books, and ambitious of a red 
coat, often go into the army to save themselves the trouble of 
acquiring the knowledge necessary for other professions. A 
man cannot be a good lawyer, or a good physician, without 
having acquired a great deal of knowledge ; but an officer 
need have little knowledge to know how to stand to be shot 
at. But though it may be true in general, that officers are 
often ignorant, it is not necessary that they should be so ; a 
man in a red coat may have as much knowledge as a man in 
a black, or a blue one ; therefore, no sensible person should 
decide that a man is ignorant merely because he is an officer. 
as Pope did." 

S . " No, to be sure. I understand now." 

M . " But I thought, S , you understood this be- 
fore." 

Mr. . " He is very right not to let it pass without un- 
derstanding it thoroughly. You are very right, S , not to 

swallow things whole ; chew them well." 

S looked as if he was still chewing. 

M . " What are you thinking of, S- ?" 

S . " Of the man's laughing at Pope for being crook- 
ed." 

Mr. . " If Pope had not said any thing rude to that 

man, the man would have done very wrong to have laughed 
at him. If the officer had walked into a coffee-house, and 
pointing at Pope, had said, ' there's a little crooked thing like 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 409 

a note of interrogation,' people might have been pleased with 
his wit in seeing that resemblance,, but they would have dis- 
liked his ill nature ; and those who knew Mr. Pope, would 
probably have answered, ' Yes Sir, but that crooked little 
man is one of the most witty men in England •> he is the great 
poet, Mr. Pope.' But when Mr. Pope had insulted the offi- 
cer, the case was altered. Now, if the officer had simply an- 
swered, when he was asked what a note of interrogation 
was, ' a little crooked thing ;' and if he had looked at Pope 
from head to foot as he spoke these words, every body's at- 
tention would have been turned upon Pope's figure ; but then 
the officer would have reproached him only for his personal 
defects : by saying, ' a little crooked thing that asks questions,'' 
the officer reproved Pope for his impertinence. Pope had 
just asked him a question, and every body perceived the dou- 
ble application of the answer. It was an exact description 
of a note of interrogation, and of Mr. Pope. It is this sort 
of partial resemblance quickly pointed out between things, 
which at first appear very unlike, that surprises and pleases 
people, and they call it wit." 

How difficult it is to explain wit to a child ! and how much 
more difficult to fix its value and morality ! About a month 

after this conversation had passed, S returned to the 

charge : his mind had not been completely settled about w'i/. 
(January 9th, 1796.) " So, S , you don't yet under- 
stand wit, I see," said M to him, when he looked very 

grave at something that was said to him in jest. S im- 
mediately asked, " What is wit ?" 

M answered (laughing) " Wit is the folly of grown 

up people." 

Mr. — — «•. " How can you give the boy such an answer? 
Come to me, my dear, and I'll try if I can give you a better. 
There are two kinds of wit, one which depends upon words, 
and another which depends upon thoughts. I will give you 
an instance of wit depending upon words : 

" Hear yonder beggar, how he cries, 
I am so lame I cannot rise ! 
If he tells truth, he lies," 

" Do you understand that?" 

S . " No ! If he tells truth, he lies ! No, he can't both 

tell truth and tell a lie at the same time ; that's impossible." 

Mr. . " Then there is something in the words which 

you don't understand : in the common sense of the words, 
they contradict each other ; but try if you can find out any 
uncommon sense — any word which can be understood in two 
senses." 
52 



410 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

S muttered the words, " If he tells truth, he lies,' ? 

and looked indignant, but presently said, " Oh, now I under- 
stand ; the beggar was lying down ; he lies, means he lies 
down, not he tells a lie." 

The perception of the double meaning of the words, did 
not seem to please this boy ; on the contrary, it seemed to 
provoke him ; and he appeared to think that he had wasted 
his time upon the discovery. 

Mr. — . " Now I will give you an instance of wit that 

depends upon the ideas, rather than on the words. A man of 
very bad character had told falsehoods of another, who then 
made these two lines : 

" Lie on, whilst my revenge shall be, 
To tell the very truth of thee." 

S approved of this immediately, and heartily, and re- 
collected the only epigram he knew by rote, one which he 
had heard in conversation two or three months before this 
time. It was made upon a tall, stupid man, who had chal- 
lenged another to make an epigram extempore upon him. 

Unlike to Robinson shall be my song- ; 
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long. 

At the time S first heard this epigram, he had been as 

slow in comprehending it as possible ; but after it had been 
thoroughly explained, it pleased him, and remained fixed in 
his memory. 

Mr. observed, that this epigram contained wit both in 

words and in ideas : and he gave S one other example. 

" There were two contractors ; I mean people who make a 
bargain with government, or with those who govern the coun- 
try, to supply them with certain things at a certain price; 
there were two contractors, one of whom was employed to 
supply government with corn ; the other agreed to supply 
government with rum. Now, you know, corn may be called 
grain, and rum may be called spirit. Both these contractors 
cheated in their bargain ; both their names were the same ; 
and the following epigram was made on them : 

" Both of a name, lo ! two contractors come ; 
One cheats in corn, and t'other cheats in rum. 
Which is the greater, if you can, explain, 
A rogue in spirit, or a rogue in grain ?" 

"? Spirit,'''' continued Mr. , " has another sense, you know 

—will, intention, soul ; he has the spirit of a rogue; she has 
the spirit of contradiction. And grain has also another 
meaning ; the grain of this table, the grain of your coat. 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 411 

Dyed in grain, means dyed into the substance of the material, 
so that the dye can't be washed out. A rogue in grain, 
means a man whose habit of cheating is fixed in his mind : 
and it is difficult to determine which is the worst, a man who 
has the wish, or a man who has the habit, of doing wrong. 
At first it seems as if you were only asked which was the 
worst, to cheat in selling grain, or in selling spirit ; but the 
concealed meaning, makes the question both sense and wit." 
These detailed examples, we fear, may appear tiresome ; 
but we knew not how, without them, to explain ourselves ful- 
ly. We should add, for the consolation of those who admire 
wit, and we are amongst the number ourselves, that it is much 
more likely that wit should be engrafted upon judgment, than 
that judgment should be engrafted upon wit. The boy whom 
we have just mentioned, who was so slow in comprehending 
the nature of wit, was asked whether he could think of any 
answer that Pope might have made to the officer who called 
him a note of interrogation. 

Is there any note which means answer ? n 
" I don't know what you mean." 
Any note which means answer, as - - - - - like 
interrogation, which shows that a question is 




" No ; but if there were, what then ?" 
Pope might have called the man that note." 

S- could not exactly explain his idea ; somebody who 

was present said, \hat if he had been in Pope's place, he 

would have called the officer a note of admiration. S 

would have made this answer, if he had been familiarly ac- 
quainted with the name of the note of admiration. His judg- 
ment taught him how to set about looking for a proper an- 
swer ; but it could not lead him to the exact place for want 
of experience. 

We hope that we have, in the chapter on books, fully ex- 
plained the danger of accustoming children to read what 
they do not understand. Poetry, they cannot early compre- 
hend ; and even if they do understand it, they cannot im- 
prove their reasoning faculty by poetic studies. The analo- 
gies of poetry, and of reasoning, are very different. " The 
muse," says an excellent judge upon this subject, " would 
make but an indifferent school-mistress." We include under 
the head of poetry, all books in which declamation and elo- 
quence are substituted for reasoning. We should accustom 
our pupils to judge strictly of the reasoning which they meet 
with in books ; no names of high authority should ever pre- 
clude an author's arguments from examination. 

The following passage from St. Pierre's Etudes de la Na- 
ture, was read to two boys : H , 1 4 years old ; S , 

10 years old. 



412 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

" Hurtful insects, present (the same) oppositions and signs 
of destruction ; the gnat, thirsty of human blood, announces 
himself to our sight by the white spots with which his brown 
body is speckled ; and by the shrill sound of his wings, which 
interrupts the calm of the groves, he announces himself to our 
ear as well as to our eye. The carnivorous wasp is streaked 
like the tiger, with bands of black over a yellow ground." 

H and S both at once exclaimed, that these spots 

in the gnat, and streaks in the wasp, had nothing to do with 

their stinging us. " The buzzing of the gnat," said S , 

" would be a very agreeable sound to us, if we did not know 
that the gnat would sting, and that it was coming near us ; 
and, as to the wasp, I remember stopping one day upon 
the stairs to look at the beautiful black and yellow body of 
a wasp. I did not think of danger, nor of its stinging me then, 
and I did not know that it was like the tiger. After I had 
been stung by a wasp, I did not think a wasp such a beauti- 
ful animal. I think it is very often from our knowing that 
animals can hurt us, that we think them ugly. We might 

as well say," continued S , pointing to a crocus which was 

near him, " we might as well say, that a man who has a yel- 
low face has the same disposition as that crocus, or that 
the crocus is in every thing like the man, because it is yel- 
low." 

Cicero's " curious consolation for deafness" is properly 

noticed by Mr. Hume. It was read to S a few days ago, 

to try whether he could detect the sophistry : he was not 
previously told what was thought of it by others. 

■' How many languages are there," says Cicero, " which 
you do not understand ! The Punic, Spanish, Gallic, Egyp- 
tian, &c. With regard to all these, you are as if you were 
deaf, and yet you are indifferent about the matter. Is it 
then so great a misfortune to be deaf to one language more ?" 

" I don't think," said S , " that was at all a good way 

to console the man, because it was putting him in mind that 
he was more deaf than he thought he was. He did not 
think of those languages, perhaps, till he was put in mind 
that he could not hear them." 

In stating any question to a child, we should avoid letting 
our own opinion be known, lest we lead or intimidate his 
mind. We should also avoid all appearance of anxiety, all 
impatience for the answer ; our pupil's mind should be in a 
calm state when he is to judge : if we turn his sympathetic 
attention to our hopes and fears, we agitate him, and he will 
judge by our countenances rather than by comparing the ob- 
jects or propositions which are laid before him. Some peo- 
ple, in arguing with children, teach them to be disingenuous 
by the uncandid manner in which they proceed ; they show 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 413 

a desire for victory, rather than for truth ; they state the ar- 
guments only on their own side of the question, and they will 
not allow the force of those which are brought against them. 
Children are thus piqued, instead of being convinced, and in 
their turn they become zealots in support of their own opin- 
ions ; they hunt only for arguments in their own favour, and 
they are mortified when a good reason is brought on the op- 
posite side of the question to that on which they happen to 
have enlisted. To prevent this, w r e should never argue, or 
suffer others to argue for victory with our pupils ; we should 
not praise them for their cleverness in finding out arguments 
in support of their own opinion ; but we should praise their 
candour and good sense when they perceive and acknowledge 
the force of their opponent's arguments. They should not 
be exercised as advocates, but as judges ; they should be 
encouraged to keep their minds impartial, to sum up the rea- 
sons which they have heard, and to form their opinion from 
these without regard to what they may have originally as- 
serted. We should never triumph over children for chang- 
ing their opinion. " I thought you were on my side of the 
question ; or, I thought you were on the other side of the 
question just now !" is sometimes tauntingly said to an ingen- 
uous child, who changes his opinion when he hears a new ar- 
gument. You think it a proof of his want of judgment, that 
he changes his opinion in this manner ; that he vibrates con- 
tinually from side to side : let him vibrate, presently he will 
be fixed. Do you think it a proof that your scales are bad, 
because they vibrate with every additional weight that is ad- 
ded to either side ? 

Idle people sometimes amuse themselves with trying the 
judgment of children, by telling them improbable, extrava- 
gant stories, and then ask the simple listeners whether they 
believe what has been told them. The readiness of belief in 
children will always be proportioned to their experience of 
the veracity of those with whom they converse ; consequent- 
ly children, who live with those who speak truth to them, will 
scarcely ever be inclined to doubt the veracity of strangers. 
Such trials of the judgment of our pupils should never be 
permitted. Why should the example of lying be set before 
the honest minds of children, who are far from silly when 
they show simplicity ? They guide themselves by the best 
rules, by which even a philosopher in similar circumstances 
could guide himself. The things asserted are extraordinary, 
but the children believe them, because they have never had 
any experience of the falsehood of human testimony. 

The Socratic mode of reasoning is frequently practised up- 
on children. People arrange questions artfully, so as to 
bring them to whatever conclusion they please. In this mode 



414 PRACTICAL EDUCATION". 

of reasoning, much depends upon getting the first move ; the 
child has very little chance of having it, his preceptor usual- 
ly begins first with a peremptory voice, " Now answer me this 
question !" The pupil, who knows that the interrogatories 
are put with a design to entrap him, is immediately alarmed, 
and instead of giving a direct, candid answer to the question, 
is always looking forward to the possible consequences of his 
reply ; or he is considering how he may evade the snare 
that is laid for him. Under these circumstances he is in immi- 
nent danger of learning the shuffling habits of cunning ; he 
has little chance of learning the nature of open, manly inves- 
tigation. 

Preceptors, who imagine that it is necessary to put on very 
grave faces, and to use much learned apparatus in teaching 
the art of reasoning, are not nearly so likely to succeed as 
those who have the happy art of encouraging children to lay 
open their minds freely, and who can make every pleasing 
trifle an exercise for the understanding. If it be playfully 
pointed out to a child that he reasons ill, he smiles and cor- 
rects himself; but you run the hazard of making him posi- 
tive in error, if you reprove or ridicule him with severity. 
It is better to seize the subjects that accidentally arise in 
conversation, than formally to prepare subjects for discussion. 
" The king's stag hounds," (says Mr. White of Selbourne, 
in his entertaining observations on quadrupeds,*) " the king's 
stag hounds came down to Alton, attended by a huntsman 
and six yeoman prickers with horns, to try for the stag that 
has haunted Hartley-wood and its environs for so long a time. 
Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended the dogs 
to see the deer unharboured ; but though the huntsman drew 
Hartley-wood, and long-coppice, and Shrubwood, and Tem- 
ple-hangers, and in their way back, Hartley, and Wardleham- 
hangers, yet no stag could be found. 

" The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out 6e- 
fore them, never drew the coverts with any address and spir- 
it," #c. 

Children, who are accustomed to have the game started 
and turned out before them by their preceptors, may, per- 
haps, like the royal pack, lose their wonted address and spir- 
it, and may be disgracefully at a fault in the public chase. 
Preceptors should not help their pupils out in argument, they 
should excite them to explain and support their own observa- 
tions. 



* A Naturalist's Calendar, by the late Rev. Gilbert \\ hite, M. A. published 
by Dr. Aiken, printed for B. and J. White, Fleet Street. 



WIT AND JUDGMENT^ 415 

Many ladies show in general conversation the powers of 
easy raillery joined to reasoning, unincumbered with pedan- 
try. If they would employ these talents in the education of 
their children, they would probably be as well repaid for 
their exertions, as they can possibly be by the polite, but 
transient applause of the visiters to whom they usually de- 
vote their powers of entertaining. A little praise or blame, 
a smile from a mother, or a frown, a moment's attention, or a 
look of cold neglect, have the happy, or the fatal power of 
repressing or of exciting the energy of a child, of directing 
his understanding to useful or pernicious purposes* Scarcely 
a day passes in which children do not make some attempt to 
reason about the little events which interest them, and, upon 
these occasions, a mother, who joins in conversation with her 
children, may instruct them in the art of reasoning without 
the parade of logical disquisitions. 

Mr. Locke has done mankind an essential service, by the 
candid manner in which he has spoken of some of the learn- 
ed forms of argumentation. A great proportion of society, 
he observes, are unacquainted with these forms, and have not 
heard the name of Aristotle ; yet, without the aid of syllo- 
gisms, they can reason sufficiently well for all the useful pur- 
poses of life, often much better than those who have been dis- 
ciplined in the schools. It would indeed " be putting one 
man sadly over the head of another," to confine the reason- 
ing faculty to the disciples of Aristotle, to any sector system, 
or to any forms of disputation. Mr. Locke has very clearly 
shown, that syllogisms do not assist the mind in the percep- 
tion of the agreement or disagreement of ideas ; but, On the 
contrary, that they invert the natural order in which the 
thoughts should be placed, and in which they must be plac- 
ed, before we can draw a just conclusion. To children who 
are not familiarized with scholastic terms, the sound of harsh 
words, and quaint language, unlike any thing that they hear 
in common conversation, is alone sufficient to alarm their im- 
agination with some confused apprehension of difficulty. In 
this state of alarm they are seldom sufficiently masters of 
themselves, either to deny or to acknowledge an adept's ma- 
jor, minor, or conclusion. Even those who are most expert 
in syllogistical reasoning, do not often apply it to the common 
affairs of life, in which reasoning is just as much wanted as it 
is in the abstract questions of philosophy ; and many argue, 
and conduct themselves with great prudence and precision,- 
who might, perhaps, be caught on the horns of a dilemma : 
or who would infallibly fall victims to the crocodile. 

Young people should not be ignorant, however, of these 
boasted forms of argumentation ; and it may, as they advance 
in the knowledge of words, be a useful exercise to resist the 



416 1'ltACTICAIi EDUCATION. 

attacks of sophistry. No ingenious person would wish to 
teach a child to employ them. As defensive weapons, it is 
necessary, that young people should have the command of 
logical terms ; as offensive weapons, these should never be 
used. They should know the evolutions, and be able to per- 
form the exercise of a logician, according to the custom of 
the times, according to the usage of different nations ; but 
they should not attach any undue importance to this techni- 
cal art : they should not trust to it in the day of battle. 

We have seen syllogisms, crocodiles, enthymemas, sorites, 
&c. explained and tried upon a boy of nine or ten years old 
in playful conversation, so that he became accustorred to the 
terms without learning to be pedantic in the abuse of them ; 
and his quickness in reasoning was increased by exercise in 
detecting puerile sophisms ; such as that of the Cretans — 
Gorgias and his bargain about the winning of his first cause. 
In the following sorites* of Themistocles — " My son com- 
mands his mother; his mother commands me ; I command 
the Athenians; the Athenians command Greece; Greece 
commands Europe ; Europe commands the whole earth ; 
therefore my son commands the whole earth" — the sophism 
depends upon the inaccurate use of the commands, which is 
employed in different senses in the different propositions. 

This error was without difficulty detected by S at ten 

years old ; and we make no doubt that any unprejudiced boy 
of the same age, would immediately point out the fallacy 
without hesitation ; but we do not feel quite sure that a boy 
exercised in logic, who had been taught to admire and rever- 
ence the ancient figures of rhetoric, would with equal read- 
iness detect the sophism. Perhaps it may seem surprising, 
that the same boy, who judged so well of this sorites of The- 
mistocles, should a few months before have been easily en- 
trapped by the following simple dilemma. 

M . " We should avoid what gives us pain." 

S -. " Yes, to be sure." 

M . " Whatever burns us, gives us pain." 

S . " Yes, that it does !" 

M . " We should then avoid whatever burns us." 

To this conclusion S heartily assented, for he had but 

just recovered from the pain of a burn. 

M . " Fire burns us." 

S . " Yes, 1 know that." 

M . " We should then avoid fire." 

S . " Yes." 



* V. Deinology ; where there are many entertaining examples of the fig- 
ures of rhetoric. 



WTT AND JUDGMENT. 417 

This hasty yes was extorted from the boy by the mode of 
interrogatory ; but he soon perceived his mistake. 

M . " We should avoid fire ? What when we are very 

cold ?" 

S . " Oh, no : I meant to say, that we should avoid a 

certain degree of fire. We should not go too near the fire. 
We should not go so near as to burn ourselves." 

Children who have but little experience, frequently admit 
assertions to be true in general, which are only true in par- 
ticular instances ; and this is often attributed to their want of 
judgment : it should be attributed to their want of experi- 
ence. Experience, and nothing else, can rectify these mis- 
takes : if we attempt to correct them by words, we shall 
merely teach our pupils to argue about terms, not to reason. 
Some of the questions and themes which are given to boys 
may afford us instances of this injudicious education. " Is 
eloquence advantageous, or hurtful to a state ?" What a vast 
range of ideas, what a variety of experience in men and 
things should a person possess, who is to discuss this ques- 
tion ! Yet it is often discussed by unfortunate scholars of 
eleven or twelve years old. " What is the greatest good ?" 
The answer expected by a preceptor to this question, obvi- 
ously is, virtue ; and, if a boy can, in decent language, write 
a page or two about pleasure's being a transient, and virtue a. 
permanent good, his master flatters himself that he has early 
taught him to reason philosophically. But what ideas does 
the youth annex to the words pleasure and virtue ? Or does 
he annex any? If he annex no idea to the words, he is mere- 
ly talking about sounds. 

All reasoning ultimately refers to matters of fact : 
to judge whether any piece of reasoning is within the 
comprehension of a child, we must consider whether the 
facts to which it refers are within his experience. The more 
we increase his knowledge of facts, the more we should ex- 
ercise him in reasoning upon them ; but we should teach him 
to examine carefully before he admits any thing to be a fact, 
or any assertion to be true. Experiment, as to substances, is 
the test of truth ; and attention to his own feelings, as to mat- 
ters of feeling. Comparison of the evidence of others with 
the general laws of nature, which he has learned from his 
own observation, is another mode of obtaining an accurate 
knowledge of facts. M. Condillac, in his Art of Reasoning, 
maintains, that the evidence of reason depends solely upon 
our perception of the identity, or, to use a less formidable 
word, sameness, of one proposition with another. " A dem- 
onstration," he says, " is only a chain of propositions, in 
which the same ideas, passing from one to the other, differ 



41 o PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

only because they are differently expressed ; the evidence ot 
any reasoning consists solely in its identity." 

M. Condillac* exemplifies this doctrine by translating this 
proposition, " The measure of every triangle is the product 
of its height by half its base," into self-evident, or, as he 
calls them, identical propositions. The whole ultimately re- 
ferring to the ideas which we have obtained by our senses of 
a triangle ; of its base, of measure, height, and number. If 
a child had not previously acquired any one of these ideas, 
it would be in vain to explain one term by another, or to 
translate one phrase or proposition into another ; they might 
be identical, but they would not be self-evident propositions 
to the pupil ; and no conclusion, except what relates merely 
to words, could be formed from such reasoning. The moral 
which we should draw from Condillac's observations for 
Practical Education must be, that clear ideas should first be 
acquired by the exercise of the senses, and that afterwards, 
when we reason about things in words, we should use few 
and accurate terms, that we may have as little trouble as 
possible in changing or translating one phrase or proposition 
into another. 

Children, if they are not overawed by authority, if they 
are encouraged in the habit of observing their own sensa- 
tions, and if they are taught precision in the use of the words 
by which they describe them, will probably reason accurate- 
ly where their own feelings are concerned. 

In appreciating the testimony of others, and in judging of 
chances and probability, we must not expect our pupils to 
proceed very rapidly. There is more danger that they 
should overrate, than that they should undervalue, the evi- 
dence of others ; because, as we formerly stated, we take it 
for granted, that they have had little experience of falsehood. 
We should, to preserve them from credulity, excite them in 
all cases where it can be obtained, never to rest satisfied 
without the strongest species of evidence, that of their own 
senses. If a child says, "I am sure of such a thing," we 
should immediately examine into his reasons for believing it. 
" Mr. A. or Mr. B. told me so," is not a sufficient cause of 
belief, unless the child has had long experience of A. and B.'s 
truth and accuracy; and, at all events, the indolent habit of 
relying upon the assertions of others, instead of verifying 
them, should not be indulged. 

It would be a waste of time to repeat those experiments, of 
the truth of which the uniform experience of our lives has 

* Une demonstration est done une suite de propositions, ou les memes ide'es 
passant de Tune a l'autre, ne different que parce qu'elles sont enoncees dif- 
ferement ; et ['evidence d'un raisonnement consiste uniquement dans l'idcu- 
tite*. V. Art de Raisonner, p. 2. 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 419 

convinced us : we run no hazard, for instance, in believing 
any one who simply asserts, that they have seen an apple 
fall from a tree ; this assertion agrees with the great natural 
law of gravity, or, in other words, with the uniform experience 
of mankind: but if any body told us, that they had seen an 
apple hanging self-poised in the air, we should reasonably 
suspect the truth of their observation, or of their evidence. 
This is the first rule which we can most readily teach our pu- 
pils in judging of evidence. We are not speaking of children 
from four to six years old, for every thing is almost equally 
extraordinary to them; but, when children are about ten or 
eleven, they have acquired a sufficient variety of facts to form 
comparisons, and to judge to a certain degree of the proba- 
bility of any new fact that is related. In reading and in con- 
versation we should now exercise them in forming judgments, 
where we know that they have the means of comparison. 
" Do you believe such a thing to be true? and why do you 
believe it? Can you account for such a thing?" are questions 
we should often ask at this period of their education. On 
hearing extraordinary facts, some children will not be satisfi- 
ed with vague assertions ; others content themselves with say- 
ing, '•' It is so, I read it in a book." We should have little 
hopes of those who swallow every thing they read in a book ; 
we are always pleased to see a child hesitate and doubt, and 
require positive proof before he believes. The taste for the 
marvellous, is strong in ignorant minds; the wish to account 
■for every new appearance, characterizes the cultivated pupil. 

A lady told a boy of nine years old (S ) the following 

story, which she had just met with in " The Curiosities of 
Literature." An officer, who was confined in the Bastile s 
used to amuse himself by playing on the flute : one day he 
observed, that a number of spiders came down from their 
webs, and hung round him as if listening to his music ; a num- 
ber of mice also came from their holes, and retired as soon as 
he stopped. The officer had a great dislike to mice ; he pro- 
cured a cat from the keeper of the prison, and when the mice 
were entranced by his music, he let the cat out amongst them. 
S was much displeased by this man's treacherous con- 
duct towards the poor mice, and his indignation for some mo- 
ments suspended his reasoning faculty; but, when S had 

sufficiently expressed his indignation against the officer in the 
affair of the mice, he began to question the truth of the story ; 
and he said, that he did not think it was certain, that the mice 
and spiders came to listen to the music, " I do not know 
about the mice," said he, " but I think, perhaps, when the 
officer played upon the flute, he set the air in motion, and 
shook the cobwebs, so as to disturb the spiders." We do not, 
nor die] the child think, that this was a satisfactorv account 



420 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

of the matter ; but we mentioned it as an instance of the love 
of investigation, which we wish to encourage. 

The difficulty of judging concerning the truth of evidence 
increases, when we take moral causes into the account. If 
we had any suspicion, that a man who told us that he had 
seen an apple fall from a tree, had himself pulled the apple 
down and stolen it, we should set the probability of his telling 
a falsehood, and his motive for doing so, against his evidence ; 
and though according to the natural physical course of things, 
there would be no improbability in his story, yet there might 
arise improbability from his character for dishonesty 5 and 
thus we should feel ourselves in doubt concerning the fact. 
But if two people agreed in the same testimony, our doubt 
would vanish ; the dishonest man's doubtful evidence would 
be corroborated, and we should believe, notwithstanding his 
general character, in the truth of his assertion in this instance. 
We could make the matter infinitely more complicated, but 
what has been said will be sufficient to suggest to preceptors 
the difficulty which their young and inexperienced pupils 
must feel, in forming judgments of facts where physical and 
moral probabilities are in direct opposition to each other. 

We wish that a writer equal to such a task would write tri- 
als for children as exercises for their judgment ; beginning 
with the simplest, and proceeding gradually to the more com- 
plicated cases in which moral reasonings can be used. We 
do not mean, that it would be advisable to initiate young rea- 
ders in the technical forms of law ; but the general principles 
of justice, upon which all law is founded, might, we think, be 
advantageously exemplified. Such trials would entertain 
children extremely. There is a slight attempt at this kind of 
composition, we mean in a little trial in Evenings at Home ; 
and we have seen children read it with great avidity. Cy- 
rus's judgment about the two coats, and the ingenious story of 
the olive merchant's cause, rejudged by the sensible child in 
the Arabian Tales, have been found highly interesting to a 
young audience. 

We should prefer truth to fiction : if we could select any 
instances from real life, any trials suited to the capacity of 
young people, they would be preferable to any which the 
most ingenious writer could invent for our purpose. A 
gentleman who has taken his two sons, one of them ten, and 
the other fifteen years old, to hear trials at his county assizes, 
found by the account which the boys gave of what they had 
heard, that they had been interested, and that they were ca- 
pable of understanding the business. 

Allowance must be made first for the bustle and noise of a 
public place, and for the variety of objects which distract the 
attention. 



WIT AND JUDGMENT. 421 

Much of the readiness of forming judgments depends upon 
the power of discarding and obliterating from our mind all 
the superfluous circumstances; it maybe useful to exercise 
our pupils, by telling them now and then stories in the con- 
fused manner in which they are sometimes related by puzzled 
witnesses; let them reduce the heterogeneous circumstances 
to order, make a clear statement of the case for themselves, 
and try if they can point out the facts on which the decision 
principally rests, This is not merely education for a lawyer; 
the powers of reasoning and judgment, when we have been 
exercised in this manner, may be turned to any art or profes- 
sion. We should, if we were to try the judgment of children, 
observe, whether in unusual circumstances they can apply 
their former principles, and compare the new objects that are^ 
placed before them without perplexity. We have sometimes 
found, that on subjects entirely new to them, children, who 
have been used to reason, can lay aside the circumstances 
that are not essential, and form a distinct judgment for them- 
selves, independently of the opinion of others. 

Last winter the entertaining life of the celebrated miser Mr. 
Elwes was read aloud in a family, in which there were a 
number of children. Mr. Elwes, once, as he was zvalking 
home on a dark night, in London, ran against a chair pole 
and bruised both his shins. His friends sent for a surgeon. 
Elwes was alarmed at the idea of expense, and he laid the 
surgeon the amount of his bill, that the leg which he took 
under his own protection would get well sooner than that 
which was put under the surgeon's care ; at the same time 
Mr. Elwes promised to put nothing to the leg of which he 
took charge. Mr. Elwes favourite leg got well sooner than 
that which the surgeon had undertaken to cure, and Mr. El- 
wes won his wager. In a note upon this transaction his bio- 
grapher says, " This wager would have been a bubble bet if 
it had been brought before the Jockey-club, because Mr. El- 
wes, though he promised to put nothing to the leg under his 
own protection, took Velnos' vegetable sirup during the time 
of its cure." 

C (a girl of twelve years old) observed when this anec- 
dote was read, that " still the wager was a fair wager, be- 
cause the medicine which Mr. Elwes took, if it was of any use, 
must have been of use to both legs ; therefore the surgeon 

and Mr. Elwes had equal advantage from it." C had 

never heard of the Jockey-club, or of bubble bets before, and 
she used the word medicine, because she forgot the name of 
Velnos' vegetable sirup. 

W T e have observed,* that works of criticism are unfit for 
children, and teach them rather to remember what others say 



V. Chanter on Books. 



422 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

of authors, than to judge of the books themselves impartially : 
but, when we object to works of criticism, we do not mean to 
object to criticism ; we think it an excellent exercise for the 
judgment, and we have ourselves been so well corrected, and 
so kindly assisted by the observations of j r oung critics, that we 
cannot doubt their capacity. This book has been read to a 
jury of young critics, who gave their utmost attention to it for 
about half an hour at a sitting, and many amendments have 
been made from their suggestions. In the chapter on obsti- 
nacy, for instance, when we were asserting, that children 
sometimes forget their old bad habits, and do not consider 
these as a part of themselves, there was this allusion. 

" As the snake, when he casts his skin, leaves the slough 
behind him, and winds on his way in new and beautiful co- 
lours." 

The moment this sentence was read, it was objected to by 

the audience. Mr. objected to the word slough, as an 

ill sounding, disagreeable word, and which conveyed at first 
to the eye the idea of a wet boggy place ; such as the slough 

of Despond. At last S , who had been pondering over 

the affair in silence, exclaimed, " But I think there's another 
fault in the allusion ; do not snakes cast their skins every 
year ? Then these new and beautiful colours, which are the 
good habits, must be thrown aside and forgotten the next time ; 
but that should not be." 

This criticism appeared conclusive even to the author, and 
the sentence was immediately expunged. 

When young people have acquired a command of language, 
we must be careful lest their fluency and their ready use of 
synonjanous expressions should lessen the accuracy of their 
reasoning. Mr. Home Tooke has ably shown the connexion 
between the study of language and the art of reasoning. It is 
not necessary to make our pupils profound grammarians, or 
etymologists, but attention to the origin, abbreviations, and va- 
rious meanings of words, will assist them not only to speak, 
but to think and argue with precision. This is not a study of 
abstract speculation, but of practical, daily utility ; half the 
disputes, and much of the misery of the world, originate and 
perpetuate themselves by the inaccurate use of words. One 
party uses a word in this sense, the opposite party uses the 
same word in another sense ; all their reasonings appear ab- 
surd to each other; and, instead of explaining them, they 
quarrel. This is not the case merely in philosophical disputes 
between authors, but it happens continually in the busy, ac- 
tive scenes of life. Even whilst we were writing this passage, 
in the newspaper of to-day, we met with an instance that is 
sufficiently striking. 



WIT ANB JUDGMEIfT. 423 

" The accusation against me," says Sir Sidney Smith, in 
his excellent letter to Pichegru, expostulating upon his unmer- 
ited confinement, " brought forward by your justice of the 
peace, was, that I was the enemy of the republic. You 
know, general, that with military men, the word enemy has 
merely a technical signification, without expressing the least 
character of hatred. You will readily admit this principle, 
the result of which is, that I ought not to be persecuted for 
the injury I have been enabled to do whilst I carried arms 
against you." 

Here the argument of two generals, one of whom is plead- 
ing for his liberty, if not for his life, turns upon the meaning 
and construction of a single word. Accuracy of reasoning, 
and some knowledge of language, may, it appears, be of es- 
sential service in all professions. 

It is not only necessary to attend to the exact meaning 
which is avowedly affixed to any terms used in argument, but 
is also useful to attend to the thoughts which are often sug- 
gested to the disputants by certain words. Thus, the words 
happiness and beauty, suggest, in conversation, very different 
ideas to different men ; and in arguing, concerning these, they 
could never come to a conclusion. Even persons who agree 
in the same definition of a word, frequently do not sufficient- 
ly attend to the ideas which the word suggests ; to the asso- 
ciation of thoughts and emotions which it excites ; and, con- 
sequently, they cannot strictly abide by their own definition, 
nor can they discover where the error lies. We have obser- 
ved,* that the imagination is powerfully affected by words 
that suggest long trains of ideas ; our reasonings are influen- 
ced in the same manner, and the elliptical figures of speech 
are used in reasoning as well as in poetry. 

" I would do so and so, if I were Alexander." 

" And so would 1, if I were Parmenio ;" 
is a short reply, which suggests a number of ideas, and a 
train of reasoning. To those who cannot supply the inter- 
mediate ideas, the answer would not appear either sublime or 
rational. Young people, when they appear to admire any 
compressed reasoning, should be encouraged to show thai: 
they can supply the thoughts and reasons that arc not ex- 
pressed. Vivacious children, will be disgusted, however, if 
they are required to detail upon the subject ;| all that is nec- 
essary, is to be sure that they actually comprehend what they 
admire. 

Sometimes a question that appears simple, involves the 
consideration of others which are difficult. Whenever a pre- 
ceptor cannot go to the bottom of the business, he will do 

* V. Chapter on Imagination. t V. Attention. 



424 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

wisely to say so at once to his pupil, instead of attempting a su* 
perficial or evasive reply. For instance, if a child was to 
hear that the Dutch burn and destroy quantities of spice, the 
produce of their India islands, he would probably express 
some surprise, and perhaps some indignation. If a precep- 
tor were to say, " The Dutch have a right to do what they 
please with what is their own, and the spice is their own," his 
pupil would not yet be satisfied ; he would probably say, 
" Yes, they have a right to do what they please with what is 
their own ; but why should they destroy what is useful ?" 
The preceptor might answer, if he chose to make a foolish 
answer, " The Dutch follow their own interest in burning the 
spice ; they sell what remains at a higher price ; the market 
would be overstocked if they did not burn some of their 
spice." Even supposing the child to understand the terms, 
this would not be a satisfactory answer ; nor could a satisfac- 
tory answer be given, without discussing the nature of com- 
merce, and the justice of monopolies. Where one question 
in this manner involves another, we should postpone the dis- 
cussion, if it cannot be completely made ; the road may be 
just pointed out, and the pupil's curiosity may be excited to 
future inquiry. It is even better to be ignorant, than to have 
superficial knowledge. 

A philosopher, who himself excelled in accuracy of reason- 
ing,recommends the study of mathematics, to improve the acute- 
ness and precision of the reasoning faculty.* To study any 
thing accurately, will have an excellent effect upon the mind ; 
and we may afterwards direct the judgment to whatever pur- 
poses we please. It has often been remarked, as a reproach 
upon men of science and literature, that those who judge ex- 
tremely well of books, and of abstract philosophical questions 
do not show the same judgment in the active business of life : 
a man, undoubtedly, may be a good mathematician, a good 
critic, an excellent writer, and may yet not show, or rather 
not employ, much judgment in his conduct : his powers of rea- 
soning cannot be deficient ; the habit of employing those 
powers in conducting himself, he should have been taught by 
early education. Moral reasoning, and the habit of acting 
in consequence of the conviction of the judgment, we call 
prudence ; a virtue of so much consequence to all the other 
virtues; a virtue of so much consequence to ourselves and to 
our friends, that it surely merits a whole chapter to itself in 
Practical Education. 

* Locke. Essay on the Conduct of the Human Understanding-. 



PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 425 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ON PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 

Voltaire says, that the king of Prussia always wrote with 
one kind of enthusiasm, and acted with another. It often 
happens, that men judge with one degree of understanding, 
and conduct themselves with another ;* hence the common- 
place remarks on the difference between theory and practice ; 
hence the observation, that it is easy to be prudent for other 
people, but extremely difficult to be prudent for ourselves. 
Prudence is a virtue compounded of judgment and resolution : 
we do not here speak of that narrow species of prudence, 
which is more properly called worldly wisdom ; but we mean 
that enlarged, comprehensive wisdom, which, after taking a 
calm view of the objects of happiness, steadily prefers the 
greatest portion of felicity. This is not a selfish virtue ; for, 
according to our definition, benevolence, as one of the great- 
est sources of our pleasures, must be included in the truly pru- 
dent man's estimate. Two things are necessary to make any 
person prudent, the power to judge, and the habit of acting 
in consequence of his conviction. We have, in the pre- 
ceding chapter, as far as we were able, suggested the best 
methods of cultivating the powers of reasoning in our pupils ; 
we must consider now how these can be applied immediately 
to their conduct, and associated with habits of action. 

Instead of deciding always for our young pupils, we should 
early accustom them to choose for themselves about every 
trifle which is interesting to childhood : if they choose wisely 
they should enjoy the natural reward of their prudence ; and 
if they decide rashly, they should be suffered to feel the con- 
sequence of their own error. Experience, it is said, makes 
even fools wise ; and the sooner we can give experience, the 
sooner we shall teach wisdom. But we must not substitute 
belief upon trust for belief upon conviction. When a little 
boy says, " I did not eat any more custard, because mamma 
told me that the custard would make me sick," he is only 

* Here lies the mutton-eating king ; 
Whose promise none relied on ' r 
Who never said a foolish thing, 
And never did a wise one. 

Epitaph on Charles 2d. 
34 



426 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

obedient, he is not prudent ; he submits to his mother's judg- 
ment, he does not use his own. When obedience is out of 
the question, children sometimes follow the opinions of oth- 
ers ; of this we formerly gave an instance (v. Toys) in the 
poor boy, who chose a gilt coach, because his mamma " and 
every body said it was the prettiest" whilst he really preferred 
the useful cart : we should never prejudice them either by 
our wisdom or our folly. 

A sensible little boy of four years old had seen somebody 
telling fortunes in the grounds of coffee ; but when he had a 
cup of coffee given to him, he drank it all, saying, " Coffee is 
better than fortune !" 

When their attention is not turned to divine what the spec- 
tators think and feel, children will have leisure to consult, 
their own minds, and to compare their own feelings. As this 
has been already spoken of,* we shall not dwell upon it ; we 
only mention it as a necessary precaution in teaching pru- 
dence. 

Some parents may perhaps fear, that, if they were to al- 
low children to choose upon every trifling occasion for them- 
selves, they would become wilful and troublesome : this cer- 
tainly will be the effect, if we make them think that there is 
a pleasure in the exercise of free-will, independently of any 
good that may be obtained by judicious choice. " Now, my 
dear, you shall have your choice ! You shall choose for your- 
self ! You shall have your free choice !" are expressions that 
may be pronounced in such a tone, and with such an empha- 
sis to a child, as immediately to excite a species of triumph- 
ant ecstacy from the mere idea of having his own free choice. 
By a different accent and emphasis we may repress the ideas 
of triumph, and without intimidating the pupil, may turn his 
mind to the difficulties, rather than the glory of being in a 
situation to decide for himself. 

We must not be surprised at the early imprudence of chil- 
dren ; their mistakes, when they first are allowed to make a 
choice, are inevitable ; all their sensations are new to them, 
consequently they cannot judge of what they shall like or 
dislike. If some of Lord Macartney's suite had, on his re- 
turn from the late embassy to China, brought home some 
plant whose smell was perfectly unknown to Europeans, 
would it have been possible for the greatest philosopher in 
England to have decided, if he had been asked, whether he 
should like the unknown perfume? Children, for the first 
five or six years of their lives are in the situation of this phi- 
losopher, relatively to external objects. We should never re- 
proachfully say to a child, " You asked to smell such a thing; 

* V, Taste and Imagination. 



PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 427 

you asked to see such a thing; and now you have had your 
wish, you don't like them !" How can the child possibly 
judge of what he shall like or dislike, before he has tried ? 
Let him try experiments upon his own feelings ; the more ac- 
curate knowledge he acquires, the sooner he will be enabled 
to choose prudently. You may expedite his progress by ex- 
citing him to compare each new sensation with those to which 
he is already familiarized ; this will counteract that love of 
novelty which is often found dangerous to prudence; if the 
mind is employed in comparing, it cannot be dazzled by new 
objects. 

Children often imagine, that what they like for the present 
minute, they shall continue to like for ever ; they have not 
learnt from experiment, that the most agreeable sensations 
fatigue, if they are prolonged or frequently repeated ; they 
have not learnt, that all violent stimuli are followed by weari- 
ness or ennui. The sensible preceptor will not insist upon his 
pupil's knowing these things by inspiration, nor will he expect 
that his assertions or prophecies should be implicitly believ- 
ed ; he will wait till the child feels, and at that moment he 
will excite his pupil to observe his own feelings. " You 
thought that you should never be tired of smelling that rose, 
or of looking at that picture ; now you perceive that you are 
tired : remember this ; it may be of use to you another 
time." If this be said in a friendly manner, it will not pique 
the child to defend his past choice, but it will direct his fu- 
ture judgment. 

Young people are often reproached for their imprudence in 
preferring a small present pleasure to a large distant advan- 
tage : this error also arises from inexperience, not from want 
of judgment, or deficiency in strength of mind. When that 
which has been the future, has in its turn become present, 
children begin to have some idea of the nature of time, and 
they can then form some comparisons between the value of 
present and future pleasure. This is a very slow process ; 
old people calculate and depend upon the distant future more 
than the young, not always from their increased wisdom or 
prudence, but merely from their increased experience, and 
consequent belief that the future will in time arrive. It is im- 
prudent in old people to depend upon the future ; if they 
were to reason upon the chance of their lives, they ought not 
to be secure of its arrival ; yet habit in this instance, as in 
in many others, is more powerful than reason ; in all the plans 
of elderly people, there is seldom any error from impatience 
as to the future ; there often appear gross errors in their se- 
curity as to its arrival. If these opposite habits could be 
mixed in the minds of the old and of the young, it would be 
for their mutual advantage. 



428 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

It is not possible to infuse experience into the mind \ our 
pupils must feel for themselves: but, by teaching them to ob- 
serve their own feelings, we may abridge their labour ; a few 
lessons will teach a great deal when they are properly ap- 
plied. To teach children to calculate and compare their 
present and future pleasures, we may begin by fixing short in- 
tervals of time for our experiments ; an hour, a day, a week, 
perhaps, are periods of time to which their imagination will 
easily extend ; they can measure and compare their feelings 
within these spaces of time, and we may lead them to observe 
their own errors in not providing for the future. " Now Fri- 
day is come ; last Monday you thought Friday would never 
come. If you had not cut away all your pencil last week, you 
would have had some left to draw with to-daj% Another time 
you will manage better." 

We should also lead them to compare their ideas of any 
given pleasure before and after the period of its arrival. 
" You thought last summer that you should like making snow 
balls in winter, better than making hay in summer. Now 
3'ou have made snow-balls to-day ; and you remember what 
you felt when you were making hay last summer ; do you 
like the snow-ball pleasure, or the hay-making pleasure the 
best ?" V. Berquin's Quatre Saisons. 

If our pupils, when they have any choice to make, prefer 
a small present gratification to a great future pleasure, we 
should not, at the moment of their decision, reproach their 
imprudence, but we should steadily make them abide by their 
choice ; and when the time arrives at which the greater pleas- 
ure might have been enjoyed, we should remark the circum- 
stance, but not with a tone of reproach, for it is their affair, 
not ours. " You preferred having a sheet of paper the mo- 
ment you wanted it last week, to the having a quire of paper 
this week." " Oh, but," says the child, " I wanted a sheet of 
paper very much then, but 1 did not consider how soon this 
week would come — I wish I had chosen the quire." " Then 
remember what you feel now, and you will be able to choose 
better upon another occasion." We should always refer to 
the pupils' own feelings, and look forward to their future ad- 
vantage. The reason why so few young people attend to ad- 
vice, is, that their preceptors do not bring it actually home to 
their feelings : it is useless to reproach for past imprudence; 
the child sees the error as plainly as we do : all that can be 
done, is to make it a lesson for the future. 

To a geometrician, the words by preposition, 1st. stand for 
a whole demonstration : if he recollects that he has once 
gone over the demonstration, he is satisfied of its truth ; and 
without verifying it again, he makes use of it in making out 
the demonstration of a new proposition. In moral reasoning. 



PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 429 

we proceed in the same manner 3 we recollect the result of 
our past experiments, and we refer to this moral demonstra- 
tion in solving a new problem. In time, by frequent prac- 
tice, this operation is performed so rapidly by the mind, that 
we scarcely perceive it, and yet it guides our actions. A man, 
in walking across the room, keeps out of the way of the ta- 
bles and chairs, without perceiving that he reasons about the 
matter ; a sober man avoids hard drinking, because he knows 
it to be hurtful to his health ; but he does not, every time he 
refuses to drink, go over the whole train of reasoning which 
first decided his determination. A modern philosopher,* 
calls this rapid species of reasoning " intuitive analogy ;" 
applied to the business of life, the French call it tact. 
Sensible people have this tact in higher perfection than oth- 
ers ; and prudent people govern themselves by it more regu- 
larly than others. By the methods which we have recom- 
mended, we hope it may be successfully cultivated in early 
education. 

Rousseau, in expressing his contempt for those who make 
habit their only guide of action, goes, as he is apt to do in the 
heat of declamation, into the error opposite to that which he 
ridicules. " The only habit," cries he, "that I wish my Em- 
ilius to have, is the habit of having no habits." Emilius 
would have been a strange being, had he literally accom- 
plished bis preceptor's wish. To go up stairs, would have 
been a most operose, and to go down stairs, a most tremen- 
dous affair to Emilius, for he was to have no habits : between 
every step of the stairs, new deliberations must take place, 
and fresh decisions of the judgment will ensue. In his 
moral judgments, Emilius would have had as much useless la- 
bour. Habit surely is necessary, even to those who make 
reason the ultimate judge of their affairs. Reason is not to 
be appealed to upon every trivial occasion, to rejudge the 
same cause a million of times. Must a man, every time he 
draws a straight line, repeat to himself, " a right line is that 
which lieth evenly between its points ?" Must he rehearse 
the propositions of Euclid, instead of availing himself of 
their practical use ? 

" Christian, can'st thou raise a perpendicular upon a 
straight line ?" is the apostrophe with which the cross-legged 
emperor of Barbary, seated on his throne of rough deal 
boards, accosts every learned stranger who frequents his 
court. In the course of his reign, probably, his Barbaric 
majesty may have reiterated the demonstration of this fa- 
vourite proposition, which he learned from a French surgeon 
about five hundred limes ; but his majesty's understanding is 

Darwin's Zoonomia. 



430 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

not materially improved by these recitals ; his geometrical 
learning is confined, we are told, to this single proposition. 

It would have been scarcely worth while to have singled 
out for combat this paradox of Rousseau's, concerning habit, 
if it had not presented itself in the formidable form of an antith- 
esis. A false maxim, conveyed in an antithesis, is dangerous 
because it is easily remembered and repeated, and it quickly 
passes current in conversation. 

But to return to our subject, of which we have imprudently 
lost sight. Imprudence does not always arise from our neg- 
lect of our past experience, or from our forgetting to take the 
future into our calculations, but from false associations, or 
from passion. Objects often appear different to one man, 
from what they do to the rest of the world : this man may 
reason well upon what the majority of reasonable people 
agree to call false appearances ; he may follow strictly the 
conviction of his own understanding, and yet the world will 
say that he acts very imprudently. To the taste or smell of 
those who are in a fever, objects not only appear, but really 
are, to the patients different from what they appear to persons 
in sound health : in the same manner to the imagination, ob- 
jects have really a different value in moments of enthusiasm, 
from what they have in our cooler hours, and we scarcely 
can believe that our view of objects will ever vary. It is in 
vain to oppose reason to false associations : we must endeav- 
our to combat one set of associations by another, and to alter 
the situation, and consequently the views,* of the mistaken 
person. Suppose, for instance, that a child had been in a 
coach and six upon some pleasant excursion (it is an improba- 
ble thing, but we may suppose any thing :) suppose a child 
had enjoyed, from some accidental circumstances, an extraor- 
dinary degree of pleasure in a coach and six, he might after- 
wards long to be in a similar vehicle, from a mistaken notion, 
that it could confer happiness. Here we should not oppose 
the force of reasoning to a false association, but we should 
counteract the former association. Give the child an equal 
quantity of amusement when he is not in a coach and six, 
and then he will form fresh pleasurable, associations with oth- 
er objects which may balance his first prepossession. If you 
oppose reason ineffectually to passion or taste, you bring the 
voice and power of reason into discredit with your pupil. 
When you have changed his view of things, you may then 
reason with him, and show him the cause of his former mis- 
take. 

In the excellent fable of the shield that was gold on one 
side and silver on the other, the two disputants never could 

* Chapter on Imagination, 



PRUDENCE AND EC0N01V1Y. 431 

jiave agreed until they changed places. — When you have, in 
several instances, proved by experiment, that you judge more 
prudently than your pupil, he will be strongly inclined to lis- 
ten to your counsels, and then your experience will be of 
real use to him ; he will argue from it with safety and satis- 
faction. When, after recovering from fits of passion or en- 
thusiasm, you have, upon several occasions, convinced him 
that your admonitions would have prevented him from the 
pain of repentance, he will recollect this when he again feels 
the first rise of passion in his mind ; and he may, in that lu- 
cid moment, avail himself of your calm reason, and thus 
avoid the excesses of extravagant passions. That unfortu- 
nate French monarch,* who was liable to temporary fits of 
frenzy, learned to foresee his approaching malady, and often 
requested his friends to disarm him, lest he should injure any 
of his attendants. 

In a malady which precludes the use of reason, it was pos- 
sible for this humane patient to foresee the probable mischief 
he might do to his fellow-creatures, and to take prudent meas- 
ures against his own violence ; and may not we expect, that 
those who are early accustomed to attend to their own feel- 
ings, may prepare against the extravagance of their own pas- 
sions, and avail themselves of the regulating advice of their 
temperate friends ? 

In the education of girls, we must teach them much more 
caution than is necessary to boys : their prudence must be 
more the result of reasoning than of experiment; they must 
trust to the experience of others ; they cannot always have 
recourse to what aught to be ; they must adapt themselves to 
what is. They cannot rectify the material mistakes in their 
conduct.! Timidity, a certain tardiness of decision, and re- 
luctance to act in public situations, are not considered as de- 
fects in a woman's character : her pausing prudence does 
not, to a man of discernment, denote imbecility ; but appears 
to him the graceful, auspicious characteristic of female virtue. 
There is always more probability that women should endan- 
ger their own happiness by precipitation, than by forbearance. 
— Promptitude of choice, is seldom expected from the female 
sex ; they should avail themselves of the leisure that is per- 
mitted to them for reflection. " Begin nothing of which you 
have not well considered the end," was the piece of advice for 
which the Eastern Sultanj paid a purse of gold, the price set 
upon it by a sage. The monarch did not repent of his pur- 

* Charles. VI. 

t " No penance can absolve their guilty fame, 

Nor tears, that wash out sin, can wash out shame." 
t V. Persian Tales, 



432 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

chase. This maxim should be engraved upon the memory oi* 
our female pupils, by the repeated lessons of education. We 
should, even in trifles, avoid every circumstance which can 
tend to make girls venturesome ; which can encourage them 
to trust their good fortune, instead of relying on their own 
prudence. Marmontel's tale, entitled " Heureusement" is a 
witty, but surely not a moral tale. Girls should be discoura- 
ged from hazarding opinions in general conversation : but 
amongst their friends, they should be excited to reason with 
accuracy and with temper.* It is really a part of a woman's 
prudence to have command of temper ; if she has it not, her 
wit and sense will not have their just value in domestic life. 
Calphurnia, a Roman lady, used to plead her own causes be- 
fore the senate, and we are informed, that she became " so 
troublesome and confident, that the judges decreed that 
thenceforward no woman should be suffered to plead." Did 
not this lady make an imprudent use of her talents ? 

In the choice of friends, and on all matters of taste, young 
women should be excited to reason about their own leelings. 
" There is no reasoning about taste," is a pernicious maxim : 
if there were more reasoning, there would be less disputation 
upon this subject. If women questioned their own minds, or 
allowed their friends to question them, concerning the rea- 
sons of their " preferences and aversions," there would not. 
probably, be so many love matches, and so few love mar- 
riages, it is in vain to expect, that young women should be- 
gin to reason miraculously at the very moment that reason is 
wanted in the guidance of their conduct. We should also ob- 
serve, that women are called upon for the exertion of their 
prudence at an age when young men are scarcely supposed to 
possess that virtue ; therefore, women should be more early, 
and more carefully, educated for the purpose. The impor- 
tant decisions of woman's life, are often made before she is 
twenty: a man does not come upon the theatre of public life, 
where most of his prudence is shown, till he is much older. 

Economy is, in women, an essential domestic virtue. Some 
women have a foolish love of expensive baubles ; a taste 
which a very little care, probably, in their early education, 
might have prevented. We are told, that when a collection 
of three hundred and fifty pounds was made for the celebrat- 
ed Cuzzona, to save her from absolute want, she immediately 
laid out two hundred pounds of the money in the purchase of 
a shell cap, which was then in fashion.! Prudent mothers, will 
avoid showing any admiration of pretty trinkets before their 
young daughters ; and they will oppose the ideas of utility and 

* V. Chapter on Temper. 

t Mrs. Piozzi's English Synonomy, vol. i. p. 359. 



PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 433 

durability to the mere caprice of fashion, which creates a taste 
for beauty, as it were, by proclamation. " Such a thing is 
pretty but it is of no use. Such a thing is pretty, but it will 
soon wear out" — a mother may say ; and she should prove 
the truth of her assertions to her pupils. 

Economy is usually confined to the management of money, 
but it may be shown on many other occasions : economy 
may be exercised in taking care of whatever belongs to us ; 
children should have the care of their own clothes, and if 
they are negligent of what is in their charge, this negligence 
should not be repaired by servants or friends, they should 
feel the real natural consequences of their own neglect, but no 
other punishment should be inflicted ; and they should be left 
to make their own reflections upon their errors and misfor- 
tunes, undisturbed by the reproaches of their friends, or by 
the prosing moral of a governess or preceptor. We recom- 
mend, for we must descend to these trifles, that girls should 
be supplied with an independent stock of all the little things 
which are in daily use; housewives, and pocket-books well 
stored with useful implements ; and there should be no lend- 
ing* and borrowing amongst children. It will be but just to 
provide our pupils with convenient places for the preservation 
and arrangement of their little goods. Order is necessary to 
economy ; and we cannot more certainly create a taste for 
order, than by showing early its advantages in practice as 
well as in theory. The aversion to old things, should, if possi- 
ble, be prevented in children: we should not express con- 
tempt for old things, but we should treat them with increased 
reverence, and exult in their having arrived under our pro- 
tection to such a creditable age. " I have had such a hat so 
long, therefore it does not signify what becomes of it !" is the 
speech of a promising little spendthrift. " I have taken care 
of my hat, it has lasted so long ; and I hope I shall make it 
last longer," is the exultation of a young economist, in which 
his prudent friends should sympathize. 

" Waste not, want not," is an excellent motto in an English 
nobleman's kitchen.t The most opulent parents ought not to 
be ashamed to adopt it in the economic education of their 
children : early habits of care, and an early aversion and 
contempt for the selfish spirit of wasteful extravagance, may 
preserve the fortunes, and, what is of far more importance, 
the integrity and peace of mind of noble families. 

We have said, that economy cannot be exercised without 
children's having the management of money. Whilst our 
pupils are young, if they are educated at home, they cannot 

* V. Toys. t Lord Scarsdale's. Keddleston. 

55 



434 I'RACTICAL EDUCATION. 

have much real occasion for money ; all the necessaries of 
life are provided for them ; and if they have money to spend, 
it must be probably laid out on superfluities. This is a bad 
beginning. Money should be represented to our pupils as- 
what it really is, the conventional sign of the value of commo- 
dities : before children are acquainted with the real and com- 
parative value of any of these commodities, it is surely impru- 
dent to trust them with money. As to the idea that children 
may be charitable and generous in the disposal of money, we 
have expressed our sentiments fully upon this subject alrea- 
dy.* We are, however, sensible that when children are sent 
to any school, it is advisable to supply them with pocket-mo- 
ney enough to put them upon an equal footing with their com- 
panions ; otherwise, we might run the hazard of inducing 
worse faults than extravagance — meanness, or envy. 

Young people who are educated at home should, as much 
as possible, be educated to take a family interest in all the 
domestic expenses. Parental reserve in money matters is ex- 
tremely impolitic ; as Mr. Locke judiciously observes, that a 
father, who wraps his affairs up in mystery, and who "views 
his son with jealous eyes," as a person who is to begin to live 
when he dies, must make him an enemy by treating him as 
such. A frank simplicity and cordial dependence upon the 
integrity and upon the sympathy of their children, will ensure 
to parents their disinterested friendship. Ignorance is always 
more to be dreaded than knowledge. Young people, who 
are absolutely ignorant of affairs, who have no idea of the re- 
lative expense of different modes of living, and of the various 
wants of a family, are apt to be extremely unreasonable in the 
imaginary disposal of their parent's fortune; they confine 
their view merely to their own expenses. " I only spend such 
a sum," they say, " and surely that is nothing to my father's 
income." They consider only the absolute amount of what 
they spend; they cannot compare it with the number of other 
expenses which are necessary for the rest of the family : they 
do not know these, therefore they cannot perceive the pro- 
portion which it is reasonable that their expenditure should 
bear to the whole. Mrs. D'Arblay, in one of her excellent 
novels, has given a striking picture of the ignorance in which 
young women sometimes leave their father's house, and be- 
gin to manage in life for themselves, without knowing any 
thing of the powers of money. Camilla's imprudence must 
chiefly be ascribed to her ignorance. Young women should 
be accustomed to keep the family accounts, and their arithme- 
tic should not be merely a speculative science ; they should 
learn the price of all necessaries, and of all luxuries ; they 

* V. Chapter on Sympathy and Sensibility. 



PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 435 

■should learn what luxuries are suited to their fortune and 
rank, what degree of expense in dress is essential to a regu- 
larly neat appearance, and what must be the increased ex- 
pense and temptations of fashion in different situations ; they 
should not be suffered to imagine that they can resist these 
temptations more than others, if they get into company above 
their rank, nor should they have any indistinct idea, that by 
some wonderful economical operations they can make a given 
sum of money go further than others can do. The steadiness 
of calculation will prevent all these vain notions; and young 
women, when they see in stubborn figures what must be the 
consequence of getting into situations where they must be 
tempted to exceed their means, will probably begin by avoid- 
ing, instead of braving, the danger. 

Most parents think that their sons are more disposed to ex- 
travagance than their daughters; the sons are usually expos- 
ed to greater temptations. Young men excite one another to 
expense, and to a certain carelessness of economy, which as- 
sumes the name of spirit, while it often forfeits all pretensions 
to justice. A prudent father will never, from any false no- 
tions of forming his son early to good company, introduce him 
to associates whose only merit is their rank or their fortune. 
Such companions will lead a weak young man into every spe- 
cies of extravagance, and then desert and ridicule him in the 
hour of distress. If a young man has a taste for literature, 
and for rational society, his economy will be secured, simply 
because his pleasures will not be expensive, nor will they be 
dependent upon the caprice of fashionable associates. The 
intermediate state between that of a school-boy and a man, is 
the dangerous period in which taste for expense is often ac- 
quired, before the means of gratifying it are obtained. Boys 
listen with anxiety to the conversation of those who are a few 
years older than themselves. From this conversation they 
gather information respecting the ways of the world, which, 
though often erroneous, they tenaciously believe to be accu- 
rate ; it is in vain that their older friends may assure them 
that such and such frivolous expenses are not necessary to 
the well-being of a man in society ; they adhere to the opinion 
of the younger counsel ; they conclude that every thing has 
changed since their parents were young, that they must not 
govern themselves by antiquated notions, but by the scheme 
of economy which happens to be the fashion of the day. Dur- 
ing this boyish state, parents should be particularly attentive 
to the company which their sons keep ; and they should fre- 
quently in conversation with sensible, but not with morose or 
old fashioned people, lead to the subject of economy, and 
openly discuss and settle the most essential points. At the 
same time a father should not intimidate his son with the idea, 



436 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

that nothing but rigid economy can win his parental favour; 
his parental favour should not be a mercenary object $ he 
should rather show his son, that he is aware of the great 
temptations to which a young man is exposed in going first in- 
to the world: he should show him, both that he is disposed to 
place confidence in him, and that he yet knows the fallibility 
of youthful prudence. If he expect from his son unerring 
prudence, he expects too much, and he will, perhaps, create 
an apprehension of his displeasure, which may chill and re- 
press all ingenuous confidence. In all his childish, and in all 
his youthful distresses, a son should be habitually inclined to 
turn to his father as to his most indulgent friend. " Apply to 
me if ever you get into any difficulties, and you will always 
find me your most indulgent friend," were the words of a 
father to a child of twelve years old, pronounced with such 
encouraging benevolence, that they were never forgotten by 
the person to whom they were addressed. 

Before a young man goes into the world, it will be a great 
advantage to him to have some share in the management of 
his father's affairs ; by laying out money for another person, 
he will acquire habits of care, which will be useful to him af- 
terwards in his own affairs. A father, who is building, or im- 
proving grounds, who is carrying on works of any sort, can 
easily allot some portion of the business to his son, as an exer- 
cise for his judgment and prudence. He should hear and see 
the estimates of workmen, and he should, as soon as he has 
collected the necessary facts, form estimates of his own, be- 
fore he hears the calculation of others : this power of estimat- 
ing will be of great advantage to gentlemen : it will circum- 
scribe their wishes, and it will protect them against the low 
frauds of designing workmen. 

It may seem trivial, but we cannot forbear to advise young 
people to read the news-papers of the day regularly : they will 
keep up by these means with the current of affairs, and they 
will exercise their judgment upon interesting business, and 
large objects. The sooner boys acquire the sort of knowledge 
necessary for the conversation of sensible men, the better ; 
they will be the less exposed to feel false shame. False 
shame, the constant attendant upon ignorance, often leads 
young men into imprudent expenses ; when, upon any occa- 
sion, they dp not know by any certain calculation to what 
any expense may amount, they are ashamed to inquire mi? 
nutely. From another sort of weakness, they are ashamed to 
resist the example or importunity of numbers ; against this 
weakness, the strong desire of preserving the good opinion of 
estimable friends, is the best preservative. The taste for the 
esteem of superior characters, cures the mind of fondness for 
vulgar applause. 



437 PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY. 

We have, in the very first chapter of this book, spoken of 
the danger of the passion for gaming, and the precautions that 
"vve have recommended in early education will, it is hoped, 
prevent the disorder from appearing in our pupils as they 
grow up. Occupations for the understanding, and objects for 
the affections, will preclude all desire for the violent stimulus 
of the gaming table. It may be said, that many men of supe- 
rior abilities, and of generous social tempers, become game- 
sters. They do so, because they have exhausted other plea- 
sures, and they have been accustomed to strong excitements. 
Such excitements do not become necessary to happiness, till 
they have been made habitual. 

There was an excellent Essay on Projects, published some 
years ago by an anonymous writer, which we think would 
make a great impression upon any young persons of good 
sense. We do not wish to repress the generous enterprising 
ardour of youth, or to confine the ideas to the narrow circle 
of which self must be the centre. Calculation will show what 
can be done, and how it can be done ; and thus the indivi- 
dual, without injury to himself, may, if he wish it, speculate 
extensively for the good of his fellow creatures. 

It is scarcely possible, that the mean passion of avarice 
should exist in the mind of any young person who has been 
tolerably well educated ; but too much pains cannot be taken 
to preserve that domestic felicity, which arises from entire 
confidence and satisfaction amongst the individuals of a family 
with regard to property. Exactness in accounts and in busi- 
ness relative to property, far from being unnecessary amongst 
friends and relations, are, we think, peculiarly agreeable, and 
essential to the continuance of frank intimacy. We should, 
whilst our pupils are young, teach them a love for exactness 
about property ; a respect for the rights of others, rather than 
a tenacious anxiety about their own. When young people 
are of a proper age to manage money and property of their 
own, let them know precisely what they can annually spend ; 
in whatever form they receive an income, let that income be 
certain : if presents of pocket money or of dress are from time 
to time made to them, this creates expectation and uncertainty 
in their minds. All persons who have a fluctuating revenue, 
are disposed to be imprudent and extravagant. It is remark- 
able that the West-Indian planters, whose property is a kind 
of lottery, are extravagantly disposed to speculation ; in the 
hopes of a favourable season, they live from year to year in 
unbounded profusion. It is curious to observe, that the pro- 
pensity to extravagance exists in those who enjoy the great- 
est affluence, and in those who have felt the greatest distress. 
Those who have little to lose, are reckless about that little ; 
and any uncertainty as to the tenure of property, or as to the 



438 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

rewards of industry, immediately operates, not only to de- 
press activity, but to destroy prudence. " Prudence," says 
Mr. Edwards, " is a term that has no place in the negro vo- 
cabulary ; instead of trusting to what are called the ground 
provisions, which are safe from the hurricanes, the negroes, in 
the cultivation of their own lands, trust more to plantain- 
groves, corn, and other vegetables that are liable to be de- 
stroyed by storms. When they earn a little money, they im- 
mediately gratify their palate with salted meats and other 
provisions, which are to them delicacies. The idea of accu- 
mulating, and of being economic in order to accumulate, is 
unknown to these poor slaves, who hold their lands by the 
most uncertain of all tenures."* We are told, that the provi- 
sion ground, the creation of the negro's industry, and the hope 
of his life, is sold by public auction to pay his master's debts. 
Is it wonderful that the term prudence should be unknown in 
the negro vocabulary ? 

The very poorest class of people in London, who feel de- 
spair, and who merely live to bear the evil of the day, 
are, it is said, very little disposed to be prudent. In a late 
publication, Mr. Colquhoun's "Treatise on the Police of the 
Metropolis," he tells us, that the " chief consumption of oys- 
ters, crabs, lobsters, pickled salmon, &x. when first in season, 
and when the prices are high, is by the lowest classes of the 
people. The middle ranks, and those immediately under 
them, abstain generally from such indulgences until the pri- 
ces are moderate."! 

Perhaps it may be thought, that the consumption of oysters, 
crabs, and pickled salmon, in London, or the management of 
the negro's provision ground in Jamaica, has little to do with 
a practical essay upon economy and prudence ; but we hope, 
that we may be permitted to use these far fetched illustrations, 
to show that the same causes act upon the mind independent- 
ly of climate : they are mentioned here to show, that the lit- 
tle revenue of young people ought to be fixed and certain. 

When we recommend economy and prudence to our pupils, 
we must, at the same time, keep their hearts open to the 
pleasures of generosity ; economy and prudence will put it in 
the power of the generous to give. 

" The worth of every thing 

Is as much money as 'twill bring," 

will never be the venal maxim of those who understand the 
nature of philosophic prudence. The worth of money is to 

* V. Edwards's History of the West-Indies. 

t V. a note in page 32 of the Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis. 



SUMMARY. 439 

be estimated by the number of real pleasures which it ean 
procure : there are many which are not to be bought by 
gold ;* these will never lose their pre-eminent value with 
persons who have been educated both to reason and to feel- 



CHAPTER XXV. 

SUMMARY. 

a The general principle," that we should associate pleasure 
with whatever we wish that our pupils should pursue, and 
pain with whatever we wish that they should avoid, forms, 
our readers will perceive, the basis of our plan of education. 
This maxim, applied to the cultivation of the understanding, 
or of the affections, will, we apprehend, be equally success- 
ful ; virtues, as well as abilities, or what is popularly called 
genius, we believe to be the result of education, not the gift of 
nature. A fond mother will tremble at the idea, that so much 
depends upon her own care in the early education of her 
children ; but, even though she may be inexperienced in the 
art, she may be persuaded that patience and perseverance 
will ensure her success : even from her timidity we may pro- 
phesy favourably ; for, in education, to know the danger, is 
often to avoid it. The first steps require rather caution and 
gentle kindness, than any difficult or laborious exertions : the 
female sex are, from their situation, their manners, and tal- 
ents, peculiarly suited to the superintendence of the early 
years of childhood. We have, therefore, in the first chap- 
ters of the preceding work, endeavoured to adapt our re- 
marks principally to female readers, and we shall think our- 
selves happy, if any anxious mother feels their practical 
utility. 

In the chapters on Toys, Tasks, and Attention, we have at- 
tempted to show how the instruction and amusements of chil- 
dren may be so managed as to coincide with each other. 
Play, we have observed, is only a change of occupation ; and 
toys, to be permanently agreeable to children, must afford 
them continual employment. We have declared war against 
tasks, or rather against the train of melancholy, which, associa- 
ted with this word, usually render it odious to the ears of the 

* " Turn from the glittering bribe your scornful eye, 
Nor sell for gold what gold can never buy." 

Johnson'-'; London. 



440 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

disgusted scholar. By kind patience, and well timed, dis- 
tinct, and above all, by short lessons^ a young child may be 
initiated in the mysteries of learning, and in the first princi- 
ples of knowledge, without fatigue, or punishment, or tears. 
No matter how little be learned in a given time, provided the 
pupil be not disgusted ; provided the wish to improve be ex- 
cited, and the habits of attention be acquired. Attention we 
consider as the faculty of the mind which is essential to the 
cultivation of all its other powers. 

It is essential to success in what are called accomplish- 
ments, or talents, as well as to our progress in the laborious 
arts or abstract sciences. Believing so much to depend up- 
on this faculty or habit, we have taken particular pains to ex- 
plain the practical methods by which it may be improved. 
The general maxims, that the attention of young people 
should at first be exercised but for very short periods ; that 
they should never be urged to the point of fatigue ; that pleas- 
ure, especially the great pleasure of success, should be asso- 
ciated with the exertions of the pupil ; are applicable to chil- 
dren of all tempers. The care which has been recommend- 
ed, in the use of words, to convey uniformly distinct ideas, 
will, it is hoped, be found advantageous. We have, without 
entering into the speculative question concerning the original 
differences of temper and genius, offered such observations as 
we thought might be useful in cultivating the attention of viva- 
cious, and indolent children ; whether their idleness or indo- 
lence proceed from nature, or from mistaken modes of in- 
struction, we have been anxious to point out means of curing 
their defects; and, from our successful experience with pupils 
apparently of opposite dispositions, we have ventured to assert 
with some confidence, that no parent should despair of cor- 
recting a child's defects: that no preceptor should despair of 
producing in his pupil the species of abilities which his educa- 
tion steadily tends to form. These are encouraging hopes, 
but not flattering promises. Having just opened these bright 
views to parents, we have paused to warn them, that all their 
expectations, all their cares, will be in vain, unless they have 
sufficient prudence, and strength of mind to follow a certain 
mode of conduct with respect to servants, and with respect to 
common acquaintance. More failures in private education 
have been occasioned by the interference of servants and ac- 
quaintance, than from any other cause. It is impossible, we 
repeat it in the strongest terms, it is impossible that parents 
can be successful in the education of their children at home, 
unless they have steadiness enough to resist all interference 
from visiters and acquaintance, who from thoughtless kind- 
ness, or a busy desire to administer advice, are apt to counter- 
act the views of a preceptor ; and who often, in a few min- 



SUMMARY. 441 

utes, undo the work of years. When our pupils have form- 
ed their habits, and have reason and experience sufficient to 
guide them, let them be left as free as air ; let them choose 
their friends and acquaintance ; let them see the greatest vari- 
ety of characters, and hear the greatest variety or conversa- 
tion and opinions : but whilst they are children, whilst they 
are destitute of the means to judge, their parents or precep- 
tors must supply their deficient reason; and authority, with- 
out violence, should direct them to their happiness. They 
must see, that all who are concerned in their education, agree 
in the means of governing them ; in all their commands and 
prohibitions, in the distribution of praise and blame, of re- 
ward and punishment, there must be unanimity. Where 
there does not exist this unanimity in families; where parents 
have not sufficient firmness to prevent the interference of ac- 
quaintance, and sufficient prudence to keep children from all 
private communication vftth servants, we earnestly advise that 
the children be sent to some public seminary of education. 
We have taken some pains to detail the methods by which all 
hurtful communication between children and servants, in a 
well regulated family, may be avoided, and we have asserted, 
from the experience of above twenty years, that these meth- 
ods have been found not only practicable, but easy. 

In the chapters on Obedience, Temper, and Truth, the gen- 
eral principle, that pleasure should excite to exertion and vir- 
tue, and that pain should be connected with whatever we wish 
our pupils to avoid, is applied to practice with a minuteness of 
detail which we knew not how to avoid. Obedience we have 
considered as a relative, rather than as a positive, virtue : be- 
fore children are able to conduct themselves, their obedience 
must be rendered habitual : obedience alters its nature as the 
pupil becomes more and more rational ; and the only method 
to secure the obedience, the willing, enlightened obedience of 
rational beings, is to convince them by experience, that it 
tends to their happiness. Truth depends upon example more 
than precept : and we have endeavoured to impress it on the 
minds of all who are concerned in education, that the first 
thing necessary to teach their pupils to love truth, is in their 
whole conduct to respect it themselves. We have reprobated 
the artifices sometimes used by preceptors towards their pu- 
pils ; we have shown that all confidence is destroyed by these 
deceptions. May they never more be attempted ! May pa- 
rents unite in honest detestation of these practices ! Children 
are not fools, and they are not to be governed like fools. Pa- 
rents who adhere to the firm principle of truth, may be cer- 
tain of the respect and confidence of their children. Children 
who never see the example of falsehood, will grow up with a 
simplicity of character, with an habitual love of truth, that 
56 



442 PKACTICAI. EDUCATION. 

must surprise preceptors who have seen the propensity to 
deceit which early appears in children who have had the 
misfortune to live with servants, or with persons who have 
the habits of meanness and cunning. We have advised, that 
children, Before their habits are formed, should never be ex- 
posed to temptations to deceive ; that no questions should be 
asked them which hazard their young integrity ; that as they 
grow older, they should gradually be trusted ; and that they 
should be placed in situations where they may feel the ad- 
vantages both of speaking truth, and of obtaining a character 
for integrity. The perception of the utility of this virtue to 
the individual, and to society, will confirm the habitual rev- 
erence in which our pupils have been taught to hold it. As 
young people become reasonable, the nature of their habits 
and of their education should be explained to them, and their 
virtues, from being virtues of custom, should be rendered 
virtues of choice and reason. It is easier to confirm good 
habits by the conviction of the understanding, than to induce 
habits in consequence of that conviccion. This principle we 
have pursued in the chapter on Rewards and Punishments ; 
we have not considered punishment as vengeance or retalia- 
tion, but as pain inflicted with the reasonable hope of procuring 
some future advantage to the delinquent, or to society. The 
smallest possible quantity of pain that can effect this purpose, 
we suppose, must, with all just and humane persons, be the 
measure of punishment. This notion of punishment, both for 
the sake of the preceptor and the pupil, should be clearly ex- 
plained as early as it can be made intelligible. As to re- 
wards, we do not wish that they should be bribes ; they 
should stimulate, without weakening the mind. The conse- 
quences which naturally follow every species of good con- 
duct, are the proper and best rewards that we can devise ; 
children whose understandings are cultivated, and whose 
tempers are not spoiled, will be easily made happy without the 
petty bribes which are administered daily to ill educated, igno- 
rant, over stimulated, and, consequently, wretched and ill hu- 
moured children. Far from making childhood a state of 
continual penance, restraint, and misery, we wish that it 
should be made a state of uniform happiness ; that parents 
and preceptors should treat their pupils with as much equal- 
ity and kindness as the improving reason of children justifies. 
The views of children should be extended to their future ad- 
vantage,* and they should consider childhood as a part of 
their existence, not as a certain number of years which must 
be passed over before they can enjoy any of the pleasures of 
life, before they can enjoy any of the privileges of grown up 

* Emilius. 



SUMMARY. 443 

people. Preceptors should not accustom their pupils to what 
they call indulgence, but should give them the utmost degree 
of present pleasure which is consistent with their future ad- 
vantage. Would it not be folly and cruelty to give present 
pleasure at the expense of a much larger portion of future 
pain ? When children acquire experience and reason, they 
rejudge the conduct of those who have educated them ; and 
their confidence and their gratitude will be in exact propor- 
tion to the wisdom and justice with which they have been 
governed. 

It was necessary to explain at large these ideas of rewards 
and punishments, that we might clearly see our way in the 
progress of education. After having determined, that our ob- 
ject is to obtain for our pupils the greatest possible portion of 
felicity ; after having observed, that no happiness can be enjoy- 
ed in society without the social virtues, without the useful and 
the agreeable qualities ; our view naturally turns to the means 
of forming these virtues, of ensuring these essential qualities. 
On our sympathy with our fellow creatures depend many of 
our social virtues ; from our ambition to excel our competi- 
tors, arise many of our most useful and agreeable actions. We 
have considered these principles of action as they depend on 
each other, and as they are afterwards separated. Sympa- 
thy and sensibility, uninformed by reason, cannot be proper 
guides to action. We have endeavoured to show how sym- 
pathy may be improved into virtue. Children should not see 
the deformed expression of the malevolent passions in the 
countenance of those who live with them : before the habits 
are formed, before sympathy has any rule to guide itself, it is 
necessarily determined by example. Benevolence and affec- 
tionate kindness from parents to children, first inspire the 
pleasing emotions of lore and gratitude. Sympathy is not 
able to contend with passion or appetite : we should there- 
fore avoid placing children in painful competition with one 
another. We love those from whom we receive pleasure. 
To make children fond of each other, we must make them the 
cause of pleasure to each other ; we must place them in situa- 
tions where no passion or appetite crosses their natural sym- 
pathy. We have spoken of the difference between transient, 
convivial sympathy, and that higher species of sympathy 
which, connected with esteem, constitutes friendship. We 
have exhorted parents not to exhaust imprudently the sensi- 
bility of their children; not to lavish caresses upon their in- 
fancy, and cruelly to withdraw their kindness when their 
children have learned to expect the daily stimulus of affec- 
tion. The idea of exercising sensibility we have endeavoured 
to explain, and to show, that if we require premature grati- 
tude and generosity from young people, we shall only teach 



444 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

them affectation and hypocrisy. We have slightly touched 
on the dangers of excessive female sensibility, and have sug- 
gested, that useful, active employments, and the cultivation of 
the reasoning faculty, render sympathy and sensibility more 
respectable, and not less graceful. 

In treating of vanity, pride, and ambition, we have been 
more indulgent to vanity than our proud readers will approve. 
We hope, however, not to be misunderstood ; we hope that 
we shall not appear to be admirers of that mean and ridicu- 
lous foible, which is anxiously concealed by all who have any 
desire to obtain esteem. We cannot, however, avoid thinking 
it is a contradiction to inspire young people with a wish to ex- 
cel, and at the same time to insist upon their repressing all ex- 
pressions of satisfaction if they succeed. The desire to ob- 
tain the good opinion of others, is a strong motive to exertion : 
this desire cannot be discriminative in children before they 
have any knowledge of the comparative value of different 
qualities, and before they can estimate the consequent value 
of the applause of different individuals. We have endeavour- 
ed to show how, from appealing at first to the opinions of oth- 
ers, children may be led to form judgments of their own ac- 
tions, and to appeal to their own minds for approbation. The 
sense of duty and independent self-complacency may gradu- 
ally be substituted in the place of weak, ignorant vanity. 
There is not much danger that young people, whose under- 
standings are improved, and who mix gradually with society, 
should not be able to repress those offensive expressions of 
vanity or pride, which are disagreeable to the feelings of the 
" impartial spectators." We should rather let the vanity of 
children find its own level, than attempt any artificial adjust- 
ments ; they will learn propriety of manners from observation 
and experience ; we should have patience with their early 
uncivilized presumption, lest we, by premature restraints, 
check the energy of the mind, and induce the cold, feeble vice 
of hypocrisy. In their own family, among the friends whom 
they ought to love and esteem, let children, with simple, unre- 
served vivacity, express the good opinion they have of them- 
selves. It is infinitely better that they should be allowed this 
necessary expansion of self-complacency in the company of 
their superiors, than that it should be repressed by the cold 
hand of authority, and afterwards be displayed in the compa- 
ny of inferiors and sycophants. We have endeavoured to 
distinguish between the proper and improper use of praise as 
a motive in education : we have considered it a stimulus which, 
like all other excitements, is serviceable or pernicious, accord- 
ing to the degree in which it is used, and the circumstances 
in which it is applied. 

Whilst we have thus been examining the general means of 
educating the heart and the understanding, we have avoided 



SUMMARY. 445 

entering minutely into the technical methods of obtaining cer- 
tain parts of knowledge. It was essential, in the first place, 
to show, how the desire of knowledge was to be excited ; what 
acquirements are most desirable, and how they are to be 
most easily obtained, are the next considerations. In the 
chapter on Books — Classical Literature and Grammar — Arith- 
metic and Geometry — Geography and Astronomy — Mechan- 
ics and Chemistry — we have attempted to show, how a taste 
for literature may early be infused into the minds of children, 
and how the rudiments of science, and some general princi- 
ples of knowledge, may be acquired, without disgusting the 
pupil, or fatiguing him by unceasing application. We have, 
in speaking of the choice of books for children, suggested the 
general principles, by which a selection may be safely made ; 
and by minute, but we hope not invidious, criticism, we have 
illustrated our principles so as to make them practically 
useful. 

The examination of M. Condillac's Cours d'Etude was 
meant to illustrate our own sentiments, more than to attack a 
particular system. Far from intending to depreciate this au- 
thor, we think most highly of his abilities ; but we thought it 
necessary to point our some practical errors in his mode of 
instruction. Without examples from real life, we should have 
wandered, as many others of far superior abilities have al- 
ready wandered, in the shadowy land of theory. 

In our chapters on Grammar, Arithmetic, Mechanics, Chem- 
istry, &c. all that we have attempted has been to recall to 
preceptors the difficulties which they once experienced, and 
to trace those early footsteps which time insensibly obliterates. 
How few possess, like Faruknaz in the Persian tale, the hap- 
py art of transfusing their own souls into the bosoms of oth- 
ers ! 

We shall not pity the reader whom we have dragged through 
Garretson's Exercises, if we can save one trembling little pil- 
grim from that " slough of despond." We hope that the pa- 
tient, quiet mode of teaching classical literature, which we 
have found to succeed in a few instances, may be found equal- 
ly successful in others ; we are not conscious of having exag- 
gerated, and we sincerely wish that some intelligent, benevo^ 
lent parents may verify our experiments upon their own chil- 
dren. 

The great difficulty which has been found in attempts to in- 
struct children in science, has, we apprehend, arisen from the 
theoretic manner in which preceptors have proceeded. The 
knowledge that cannot be immediately applied to use, has no 
interest for children, has no hold upon their memories; they 
may learn the principles of mechanics, or geometry, or chem- 
istry; but if they have no means of applying their knowledge, 



446 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

it is quickly forgotten, and nothing but the disgust connected 
with the recollection of useless labour remains in the pupil's 
mind. It has been our object in treating of these subjects, to 
show how they may be made interesting to young people •, 
and for this purpose we should point out to them, in the daily, 
active business of life, the practical use of scientific knowledge. 
Their senses should be exercised in experiments, and these 
experiments should be simple, distinct, and applicable to some 
object in which our pupils are immediately interested. We 
are not solicitous about the quantity of knowledge that is ob- 
tained at any given age, but we are extremely anxious that 
the desire to learn should continually increase, and that what- 
ever is taught should be taught with that perspicuity, which 
improves the general understanding. If the first principles of 
science are once clearly understood, there is no danger that 
the pupil should not, at any subsequent period of his life, im- 
prove his practical skill, and increase his knowledge to what- 
ever degree he thinks proper. 

We have hitherto proceeded without discussing the com- 
parative advantages of public or private education. Wheth- 
er children are to be educated at home, or to be sent to public 
seminaries, the same course of education, during the first 
years of their lives, should be pursued ; and the preparatory 
care of parents is essential to the success of the public pre- 
ceptor. We have admitted the necessity of public schools, 
and, in the present state of societj^, we acknowledge that ma- 
ny parents have it not in their power properly to superintend 
the private education of a family. We have earnestly advi- 
sed parents not to attempt private education without first cal- 
culating the difficulties of the undertaking ; we have pointed 
out that, by co-operating with the public instructer, parents 
may assist in the formation of their children's characters, 
without undertaking the sole management of their classical 
instruction. A private education, upon a calm survey of the 
advantages of both systems, we prefer, because more is in the 
power of the private than of the public instructer. One uni- 
form course of experience may be preserved, and no exam- 
ples, but those which we wish to have followed, need be seen 
by those children who are brought up at home. When we 
give our opinion in favour of private education, we hope that 
all we have said on servants and on acquaintance will be full 
in the reader's recollection. No private education, we repeat 
it, can succeed without perfect unanimity, consistency, and 
steadiness, amongst all the individuals in the family. 

We have recommended to parents the highest liberality as 
the highest prudence, in rewarding the care of enlightened 
preceptors. Ye great and opulent parents, condescend to 
make your children happy : provide for yourselves the cor- 



SUMMARY. 447 

dial of domestic affection against " that sickness of long life 
— old age." 

In what we have said of governesses, masters, and the val- 
ue of female accomplishments, we have considered not only 
what is the fashion of to-day, but rather what is likely to be the 
fashion of ten or twenty years hence. Mothers will look 
back, and observe how much the system of female education 
has altered within their own memory 5 and they will see, 
with " the prophetic eye of taste," what may probably be 
the fashion of another spring — another race.* We have en- 
deavoured to substitute the words domestic happiness instead 
of the present terms, " success in the world — fortunate es- 
tablishments," &c. This will lead, perhaps, at first, to some 
confusion in the minds of those who have been long used to 
the old terms : but the new vocabulary has its advantages ; 
the young and unprejudiced will, perhaps, perceive them, and 
maternal tenderness will calculate with more precision, but 
not with less eagerness, the chances of happiness according 
to the new and old tables of interest. 

Sectary-metaphysicians, if any of this description should 
ever deign to open a book that has a practical title, will, we 
fear, be disappointed in our chapters on Memory — Imagina- 
tion and Judgment. They will not find us the partisans of 
any system, and they will probably close the volume with su- 
percilious contempt. We endeavour to console ourselves by 
the hope, that men of sense and candour will be more indul- 
gent, and will view with more complacency an attempt to col- 
lect from all metaphysical writers, those observations, which 
can be immediately of practical use in education. Without 
any pompous pretensions, we have given a sketch of what we 
have been able to understand and ascertain of the history of 
the mind. On some subjects, the wisest of our readers will 
at least give us credit for knowing that we are ignorant. 

We do not set that high value upon Memory, which some 
preceptors are inclined to do. From all that we have obser- 
ved, we believe that few people are naturally deficient in this 
faculty ; though in many it may have been so injudiciously cul- 
tivated as to induce the spectators to conclude, that there was 
some original defect in the retentive power. The recollec- 
tive power is less cultivated than it ought to be, by the usual 
modes of education : and this is one reason why so few pu- 
pils rise above mediocrity. They lay up treasures for moths 
to corrupt ; they acquire a quantity of knowledge, they learn 
a multitude of words by rote, and they cannot produce a sin- 
gle fact, or a single idea, in the moment when it is wanted : 
they collect, but they cannot combine. We have suggested 

* " Another spring, another race supplies." — Pope's Homer. 



448 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

the means of cultivating the inventive faculty at the same 
time that we store the memory ; we have shown, that on the 
order in which ideas are presented to the mind, depends the 
order in which they will recur to the memory ; and we have 
given examples from the histories of great men and little 
children, of the reciprocal assistance which the memory and 
the inventive powers afford each other. 

In speaking of Taste, it has been our wish to avoid preju- 
dice and affectation. We have advised that children should 
early be informed, that the principles of taste depend upon 
casual, arbitrary, variable associations. This will prevent 
our pupils from falling into the vulgar error of being amazed 
and scandalized at the tastes of other times and other nations. 
The beauties of nature and the productions of art, which are 
found to be most generally pleasing, we should associate with 
pleasure in the mind : but we ought not to expect that chil- 
dren should admire those works of imagination which suggest, 
instead of expressing, ideas. Until children have acquired 
the language, until they have all the necessary trains of ideas, 
many of the finest strokes of genius in oratory, poetry, and 
painting, must to them be absolutely unintelligible. 

In a moral point of view, we have treated of the false as- 
sociations which have early influence upon the imagination, 
and produce the furious passions and miserable vices. The 
false associations which first inspire the young and innocent 
mind with the love of wealth, of power, or what is falsely 
called pleasure, are pointed out ; and some practical hints are 
offered to parents, which it is hoped may tend to preserve 
their children from these moral insanities. 

We do not think that persons who are much used to chil- 
dren, will quarrel with us for what we have said of early pro- 
digies of wit. People, who merely talk to children for the 
amusement of the moment, may admire their " lively non- 
sense," and will probably think the simplicity of the mind 
that we prefer, is downright stupidity. The habit of reason- 
ing is seldom learned by children who are much taken notice 
of for their sprightly repartees ; but we have observed that 
children, after they have learned to reason, as they grow up 
and become acquainted with the manners and customs 
of the world, are by no means deficient in talents for conver- 
sation, and in that species of wit which depends upon the 
perception of analogy between ideas, rather than a play upon 
words. At all events, we would rather that our pupils should 
be without the brilliancy of wit, than the solid and essential 
power of judgment. 

To cultivate the judgment of children, we must begin by 
teaching them accurately to examine and compare such exter- 



SUMMARY. 449 

nal objects as are immediately obvious to their senses ; when 
they begin to argue, we must be careful to make them explain 
their terms and abide by them. In books and conversation, 
they must avoid all bad reasoning, nor should they ever be 
encouraged in the quibbling habit of arguing for victor}'. 

Prudence we consider as compounded of judgment and re- 
solution. When we teach children to reflect upon and com- 
pare their own feelings, when we frequently give them their 
choice in things that are interesting to them, we educate them 
to be prudent. We cannot teach this virtue until children 
have had some experience ; as far as their experience goes, 
their prudence may be exercised. Those who reflect upon 
their own feelings, and find out exactly what it is that makes 
them happy, are taught wisdom by a very few distinct les- 
sons. Even fools, it is said, grow wise by experience, but it 
is not until they grow old under her rigid discipline. 

Economy is usually understood to mean prudence in the 
management of money ; we have used this word in a more 
enlarged sense. Children, we have observed, may be econ- 
omic of any thing that is trusted to their charge ; until they 
have some use for money, they need not be troubled or tempt- 
ed with it : if all the necessaries and conveniences of life are 
provided for them, they must spend whatever is given to them 
as pocket money, in superfluities. This habituates them ear- 
ly to extravagance.. We do not apprehend that \oung peo- 
ple should be entrusted with money, till they have been some 
time used to manage the money business of others. They 
may be taught to keep the accounts of a family, from which 
they will learn the price and value of different commodities. 
All this, our readers will perceive, is nothing more than the 
application of the different reasoning powers to different ob- 
jects. 

We have thus slightly given a summary of the chapters in 
the preceding work, to recall the whole in a connected view to 
the mind ; a few simple principles run through the different 
parts ; all the purposes of practical education tend to one 
distinct object ; to render our pupils good and wise, that they 
may enjoy the greatest possible share of happiness at present 
and in future. 

Parental care and anxiety, the hours devoted to the instruc- 
tion of a family, will not be thrown away ; if parents have 
the patience to wait for their reward, that reward will far sur- 
pass their most sanguine expectations : they will find in their 
children agreeable companions, sincere and affectionate 
friends. Whether they live in retirement, or in the busy 
world, they will feel their interest in life increase, their pleas- 
57 



450 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

ures multiplied by sympathy with their beloved pupils ; they 
will have a happy home. How much is comprised in that 
single expression ! The gratitude of their pupils will contin- 
ually recall to their minds the delightful reflection, that the 
felicity of their whole family is their work ; that the virtues 
and talents of their children are the necessary consequences 
of good education. 



APPENDIX. 451 



NOTES, 

CONTAINING CONVERSATIONS AND ANECDOTES OF CHIL- 
DREN. 

Several years ago a mother,* who had a large family to 
educate, and who had turned her attention with much solici- 
tude to the subject of education, resolved to write notes from 
day to day of all the trifling things which mark the progress 
of the mind in childhood. She was of opinion, that the art of 
education should be considered as an experimental science, 
and that many authors of great abilities had mistaken their 
road by following theory instead of practice. The title of 
" Practical Education" was chosen by this lady, and prefixed 
to a little book for children, which she began, but did not 
live to finish. The few notes which remain of her writing, 
are preserved, not merely out of respect to her memory, but 
because it is thought that they may be useful. Her plan of 
keeping a register of the remarks of children, has at intervals 
been pursued in her family ; a number of these anecdotes have 
been interspersed in this work ; a few, which did not seem im- 
mediately to suit the didactic nature of any of our chapters, 
remain, and with much hesitation and diffidence are offered to 
the public. We have selected such anecdotes as may in some 
measure illustrate the principles that we have endeavoured to 
establish ; and we hope, that from these trifling, but genuine 
conversations of children and parents, the reader will dis- 
tinctly perceive the difference, between practical and theoret- 
ic education. As some further apology for offering them to 
the public, we recur to a passage in Dr. Reid'sf Essays, 
which encourages an attempt to study minutely the minds of 
children. 



* Mrs. Honora Edgeworth, daughter of Edward Sneyd, Esq. of Litchfield. 
As this lady's name has been mentioned in a monody on the death of Major 
Andre, we take this opportunity of correcting a mistake that occurs in a note 
to that performance. 

" Till busy rumour chas'd each pleasing dream, 
And quench'd the radiance of the silver beam." 

Monody on Major Andre. 
The note on these lines is as follows : 
" The tidings of Honora's marriage. Upon that event Mr. Andre quitted 
his profession as a merchant, and joined our army in America." 

Miss Honora Sneyd was married to Mr. Edgeworth in July, 1773, and the 
date of Major Andre's first commission in the Welch Fusileers is March 4th. 
1771. 
t This has been formerly quoted in the preface to the Parent's Assistant 



452 PIIACTICAI EDUCATION. 

" If we could obtain a distinct and full history of all that 
hath passed in the mind of a child from the beginning of life 
and sensation till it grows up to the use of reason, how its in- 
fant faculties began to work, and how they brought forth and 
ripened all the various notions, opinions, and sentiments, 
which we find in ourselves when we come to be capable of 
reflection, this would be a treasure of natural history which 
would probably give more light into the human faculties, than 
all the systems of philosophers about them, from the begin- 
ning of the world." 

The reader, we hope, will not imagine that we think we can 
present him with this treasure of natural history ; we have 
only a few scattered notices, as Bacon would call them, to of- 
fer : perhaps, even this slight attempt may awaken the atten- 
tion of persons equal to the undertaking : if able preceptors 
and parents would pursue a similar plan, we might, in time, 
hope to obtain a full history of the infant mind. 

It may occur to parents, that writing notes of the remarks 
of children would lessen their freedom and simplicity in con- 
versation ; this would certainly be the case if care were not 
taken to prevent the pupils from thinking of the note-book* 
The following notes were never seen by the children who are 
mentioned in them, and though it was in general known in the 
family that such notes were taken, the particular remarks that 
were written down, were never known to the pupils : nor was 
any curiosity excited upon this subject. The attempt would 
have been immediately abandoned, if we had perceived that 
it produced any bad consequences. The simple language of 
childhood has been preserved without alteration in the fol- 
lowing notes ; and as we could not devise any better arrange- 
ment, we have followed the order of time, and we have con- 
stantly inserted the ages of the children, for the satisfaction 
of preceptors and parents, to whom alone these infantine an- 
ecdotes can be interesting : We say nothing farther as to their 
accuracy ; if the reader does not see in the anecdotes them- 
selves internal marks of veracity, all we could say would be 
of no avail. 

X (a girl of five years old) asked why a piece of pa- 
per fell quickly to the ground when rumpled up, and why so 
slowly when opened. 

Y (a girl of three years and a half old) seeing her 

sister taken care of and nursed when she had chilblains, said 
that she wished to have chilblains. 

Z (a girl between two and three) when her mother 

was putting on her bonnet, and when she was going out to 

* The anecdotes mentioned in the preceding pages, were read to the chil- 
dren with the rest of the work. 



APPENDIX. 453 

walk, looked at the cat, and said with a plaintive voice, " Poor 
pussey ; you have no bonnet, Pussey !" 

X (5 years old) asked why she was as tall as the trees 

when she was far from them. 

Z (4 years old) went to church, and when she was 

there said, " Do those men do every thing better than we, be- 
cause they talk so loud, and I think they read." 

It was a country church, and people sang; but the child 
said, '* She thought they didn't sing, but roared, because they 
were shut up in that place, and didn't like it." 

L (a boy between 3 and 4 years) was standing before 

a grate with coals in it, which were not lighted ; his mother 
said to him, " What is the use of coals ?" 

L . " To put in your grate." 

Mother. " Why are they put there ?" 

L . " To make fire." 

Mother. " How do they make fire ?" 

L . " Fire is brought to them." 

Mother. " How is fire brought to them ?" 

L . " Fire is brought to them upon a candle and put 

to them." 

L , a little while afterwards, asked leave to light a can- 
dle, and when a bit of paper was given to him for that pur- 
pose, said, " But, mother, may I take some light out of your 
fire to put to it ?" 

This boy had more exact ideas of property than Prome- 
theus had. 

Z , when she was between five and six, said, " Water 

keeps things alive, and eating keeps alive children." 

Z (same age) meddling with a fly, said, " she did not 

hurt it." " Were you ever a fly?" said her mother. ." Not 
that I knozo of" answered the child. 

Z 's father sent her into a room where there were some 

knives and forks. " If you meddle with them," said he, " you 
may cut yourself." 

Z . " I won't cut myself." 

Father. " Can you be sure of that ?" 

Z . " No, but I can take care." 

Father. " But if you should cut yourself, would it do you 
any good ?" 

Z . " No— Yes." 

FatJier. " What good ?" 

Z . " Not to do so another time." 

_ (same age.) Z 's mother said to her, " Will you 

give me some of your fat cheeks ?" 

Z . " No, I cannot, it would hurt me." 

Mother. " But if it would not hurt you. would you give me 
some ?" 



454 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Z . " No, it would make two holes in my cheeks that 

would be disagreeable." 

A sentimental mother would, perhaps, have been displeas- 
ed with the simple answers of this little girl. (Vide Sympa- 
thy and Sensibility.) 

The following memorandums of Mrs. H E 's (da- 
ted 1779) have been of great use to us in our chapter upon 
Toys. 

" The playthings of children should be calculated to fix 
their attention, that they may not get a habit of doing any 
thing in a listless manner. 

" There are periods as long as two or three months at a 
time, in the lives of young children, when their bodies appear 
remarkably active and vigorous, and their minds dull and in- 
animate ; they are at these times incapable of comprehend- 
ing any new ideas, and forgetful of those they have already 
received. When this disposition to exert the bodily faculties, 
subsides, children show much restlessness and distaste for 
their usual plays. The intervals between meals, appear long 
to them ; they ask a multitude of questions, and are continu- 
ally looking forward to some future good ; if at this time any 
mental employment be presented to them, they receive it with 
the utmost avidity, and pursue it with assiduity ; their minds 
appear to have acquired additional powers from having re- 
mained inactive for a considerable time." 

(January 1781.) Z , (7 years old.) " What are bones 

made of ? My father says it has not been found out. If I 
should find it out, I shall be wiser in that respect than my 
father." 

(April 8th.) Z . " What becomes of the blood when 

people die ?" 

Father. " It stays in the body." 

Z . " I thought it went out of the body ; because you 

told me, that what we eat was turned into blood, and that 
blood nourished the body and kept it alive." 

Father. " Yes, my dear ; but blood must be in motion to 
keep the body alive ; the heart moves the blood through the 
arteries and veins, and the blood comes back again to the 
heart. We don't know how this motion is- performed. What 
we eat is not turned at once into blood ; it is dissolved by 
something in the stomach, and is turned into something white 
like milk, which is called chyle ; the chyle passes through 
little pipes in the body, called lacteals, and into the veins and 
arteries, and becomes blood. But I don't know how. I will 
show you the inside of the body of a dead pig : a pig's in- 
side is something like that of a man." 

Z (same age) when her father had given her an ac- 
count of a large stone that was thrown to a considerable dis- 



APPENDIX. 453 

tance from Mount Vesuvius at the time of an eruption, she 
asked, how the air could keep a large stone from falling, when 
it would not support her weight. 

Z , (same age) when she was reading the Roman his- 
tory, was asked, what she thought of the conduct of the wife 

of Asdrubal. Z said she did not like her. She was 

asked why. The first reason Z gave for not liking the 

lady, was, " that she spoke loud ;" the next, " that she was 
unkind to her husband, and killed her children." 

We regret (though perhaps our readers may rejoice) that 
several years elapsed in which these little notes of the re- 
marks of children were discontinued. In 1792 the following 
notes were begun by one of the same family. 

(March, '92.) Mr. saw an Irish giant at Bristol, 

and when he came home, Mr. gave his children a de- 
scription of the giant. His height, he said, was about eight 

feet. £ (a boy of five years old) asked whether this 

giant had lived much longer than other men. 

Father. " No ; why did you think he had lived longer 
than other men ?" 

S . " Because he was so much taller." 

Father. " Well." 

S . " And he had so much more time to grow." 

Father. " People, after a certain age, do not grow any 

more. Your sister M , and I, and your mother, have not 

grown any taller since you can remember, have we ?" 

S . " No ; but I have, and B , and C ." 

Father. " Yes ; you are children. Whilst people are 
growing, they are children ; after they have done growing 
they are called men and women." 

(April, '92.) At tea-time, to-day, somebody said that hot 

chocolate scalds worse than hot tea or hot water. Mr. 

asked his children if they could give any reason for this. 
They were silent. 

Mr. . " If water be made as hot as it can be made, 

and if chocolate be made as hot as it can be made, the choc- 
olate will scald you the most. Can you tell me why !" 

C (a girl between eight and nine years old.) " Be- 
cause there is oil, I believe, in the chocolate ; and because it 
is thicker, and the parts closer together, than in tea or water." 

Father. " What you say is true ; but you have not ex- 
plained the reason yet. Well, H ." 

H (a boy between nine and ten.) ." Because there is 

water in the bubbles." 

Father. " Water in the bubbles ? I don't understand. 
Water in what bubbles ?" 

H . " I thought I had always seen, when water boils, 

that there are a great many little bubbles upon the top." 



456 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Father. t; Well ; but what has that to do with the question 
I asked you ?" 

H . " Because the cold air that was in the bubbles, 

would cool the water next them, and then" — (he was quite 
confused, and stopped.) 

B (a girl of ten or eleven years old) spoke next. " I 

thought that chocolate was much thicker than water, and 
there were more parts, and those parts were closer together, 
and each could hold but a certain quantity of heat ; and 
therefore chocolate could be made hotter than water." 

Fath-er. " That is a good chemical idea. You suppose 
that the chocolate and tea can be saturated with heat. But 
you have none of you yet told the reason." 

The children were all silent. 

Father. " Can water ever be made hotter than boiling hot?" 

B . " No.". ■ 

Father. « Why ?" 

B . " I don't know." 

Father. " What happens to water when it does what we 
call boil r 

H . " It bubbles, and makes a sort of noise." 

B . " It turns into steam or vapour I believe." 

Father. " All at once ?" 

B . " No : but what is at the top, first." 

Father. " Now you see the reason why water can't be 
made hotter than boiling hot : for if a certain degree of heat 
be applied to it, it changes into the form of vapour, and flies 
off. When I was a little boy, I was once near having a dread- 
ful accident. I had not been taught the nature of water, and 
steam, and heat, and evaporation ; and I wanted to fill a wet 
hollow stick with melted lead. The moment I poured the 
lead into the stick, the water in the wood turned into vapour 
suddenly, and the lead was thrown up with great violence to 
the ceiling : my face narrowly escaped. So you see people 
should know what they are about before they meddle with 
things. — But now as to the chocolate." 

No one seemed to have any thing to say about the choco- 
late. 

Father. " Water, jow know, boils with a certain degree of 
heat. Will oil, do you think, boil with the same heat?" 

C . " I don't understand." 

Father. " In the same degree of heat (you must learn to 
accustom yourself to those words, though they seem difficult 
to you) — In the same heat, do you think water or oil would 
boil the soonest ?" 

None of the children knew. 

Father. " Water would boil the soonest. More heat is 
necessary to make oil boil, or turn into vapour, than to make 



APPENDIX 457 

water evaporate. Do you know of any thing which is used 
to determine, to show, and mark, to us the different degrees of 
heat ?" 

B . " Yes 5 a thermometer." 

Father. " Yes : thermometer comes from two Greek words 
one of which signifies heat, and the other measure. Meter, 
means measure. Thermometer a measurer of heat ; barome- 
ter, a measurer of the weight of the air ; hygrometer, a meas- 
urer of moisture. Now, if you remember, on the thermometer 
you have seen these words at a certain mark, the heat of boil- 
ing water. The quicksilver in a thermometer, rises to that 
mark when it is exposed to that degree of heat which will 
make the water turn into vapour. Now the degree of heat 
which is necessary to make oil evaporate, is not marked on 
the thermometer ; but it requires several degrees more heat 
to evaporate oil, than is necessary to evaporate water. — 
So now you know that chocolate, containing more oil than is 
contained in tea, it can be made hotter before it turns into va- 
pour." 

Children may be led to acquire a taste for chemistry by 
slight hints in conversation. 

(July 22d, 1 794.) Father. " S , can you tell me what 

is meant by a body's falling ?" 

S (seven years old.) " A body's falling, means a 

body's dying, I believe." 

Father. " By body, 1 don't mean a person, but any thing. 
What is meant by any thing's falling ?" 

S . " Coming down from a high place." 

Father. " What yo you mean by high place ?" 

S . " A place higher than places usually are ; higher 

than the ground." 

Father. " What do you mean by the ground ?" 

S . "The earth." 

Father. " What shape do you think the earth is ?" 

S . " Round." 

Father. " Why do you think it is round ?" 

5 ■. " Because 1 have heard a great many people say so." 

Father. " The shadow. — It is so difficult to explain to you, 
my dear, why we think that the earth is round, that I will not 
attempt it yet." 

It is better, as we have often observed, to avoid all imper* 
feet explanations, which give children confused ideas. 

(August 18th, 1794.) Master came to see us, and 

taught S to fish for minnows. It was explained to S— — , 

that fishing with worms for baits, tortures the worms. No 
other argument was used, no sentimental exclamations nade 
upon the occasion ; and S fished no more, nor did he ev- 
er mention the subject again, 
58 



458 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

Children sometimes appear cruel, when in fact they do not 
know that they give pain to animals. 

(July 27th, 1 794.) S saw a beautiful rainbow, and he 

said, " I wish I could walk over that fine arch." 

This is one of the pleasures of Ariel, and of the Sylphs in 

the Rape of the Lock. S was not praised for a poetic 

wish, lest he should have learnt affectation. 

(September 3d, 1794.) Mr. attempted to explain to 

B , H , S , and C , the nature of insurance, 

and the day afterwards he asked them to explain it to him. 

They none of them understood it, except B , who could 

not, however, explain it, though she did understand it. The 
terms were all new to them, and they had no ships to insure. 

(September 1 9th.) At dinner to-day, S (seven years 

old) said to his sister C , " What is the name of that man 

that my father was talking to, that sounded like Idem, Isdal, 
or Izard, I believe." " Izard !" said somebody at table, " that 
name sounds like Lizard ; yes, there is a family of the Liz- 
ards in the Guardian." 

S . " A real family ?" 

Mr. . " No, my dear : a name given to supposed 

characters." 

M . " Wasn't it one of the young Lizards who would 

prove to his mother, when she had just scalded her fingers 
with boiling water out of the tea-kettle, that there's no more 
heat in fire that heats you, than pain in the stick that beats 
you !" 

Mr. " Yes ; I think that character has done harm ; 

it has thrown a ridicule upon metaphysical disquisitions." 

Mrs. . " Are not those lines about the pain in the 

stick in the ' Letter* to my Sisters at Crux Easton,' in Dods- 
ley's poems ?" 

Mr. " Yes ; but they come originally from Hudibras, 
you know." 

In slight conversations, such as these, which are not con- 
trived for the purpose, the curiosity of children is awakened 
to literature ; ,they see the use which people make of what 
they read, and they learn to talk freely about what they 
meet with in books. What a variety of thoughts came in a 

few instants from S 's question about Idem ! 

(November 8th, 1795.) Mr. read the first chapter of 

Hugh Trevor to us ; which contains the history of a passion- 
ate farmer, who was in a rage with a goose because it would 
not eat some oats which he offered it. He tore off the wings 
of the animal, and twisted off its neck ; he bit off the ear of 
a pig, because it squealed when he was ringing it ; he ran at 

* Soame Jenyos's. 



APPENDIX. 459 

his apprentice Hugh Trevor with a pitch-fork, because he 
suspected that he had drank some milk ; the pitch-fork stuck 
in a door. Hugh Trevor then told the passionate farmer, 
that the dog Jowler had drank the milk, but that he would 
not tell this before, because he knew his master would have 
hanged the dog. 

S admired Hugh Trevor for this extremely. 

The farmer in his lucid intervals is extremely penitent, but 
his fit of rage seizes him again one morning when he sees 
some milk boiling over. He flies at Hugh Trevor, and 
stabs him with a clasp knife, with which he had been cutting 
bread and cheese ; the knife is stopped by half a crown 
which Hugh Trevor had sewed in his waistcoat ; this half 
crozon he had found on the highway a few days before. 

It was doubted by Miss M. S , whether this last was a 

proper circumstance to be told to children, because it might 
lead them to be dishonest. 

The evening after Mr. had read the story, he asked 

S to repeat it to him. S remembered it, and told it 

distinctly till he came to the half crown ; at this circumstance 
he hesitated. He said he did not know how Hugh Trevor 
" came to keep it" though he had found it. He wondered that 
Hugh Trevor did not ask about it. 

Mr. explained to him, that when a person finds any 

thing upon the highway, he should put it in the hand of the 
public crier, who should cry it. Mr. was not quite cer- 
tain whether the property found on the high road, after it had 
been cried and no owner appears, belongs to the king, or to 
the person who finds it. Blackstone's Commentaries were 
consulted ; the passage concerning Treasuretrove was read to 
S ; it is written in such distinct language, that he under- 
stood it completely. 

Young people may acquire much knowledge by consulting 
books, at the moment that any interest is excited by conver- 
sation upon particular subjects. 

Explanations about the lazo were detailed to S , because 

he was intended for a lawyer. In conversation we may di- 
rect the attention of children to what are to be their profes- 
sional studies, and we may associate entertainment and pleas- 
ure with the idea of their future profession. 

The story of the passionate farmer in Hugh Trevor was 
thought to be a good lesson for children of vivacious tempers, 
as it shows to what crimes excess of passion may transport. 
This man appears an object of compassion ; all the children 
felt a mixture of pity and abhorrence when they heard the 
history of his disease. 

(November 23d, 1795.) This morning at breakfast Miss 
observed, that the inside of the cream cover, which was 



460 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

made of black Wedgwood's ware, looked brown and speck- 
led, as if the glazing had been worn away ; she asked wheth- 
er this was caused by the cream. One of the company im- 
mediately exclaimed, " Oh ! I have heard that Wedgwood's 

ware won't hold oil." Mr. observed, that it would be 

best to try the experiment, instead of resting content with 

this hear-say evidence ; he asked H and S what 

would be the best method of trying the experiment exactly.. 

S proposed to pour oil into a vessel of Wedgwood's 

ware, and to measure the depth of the oil when first put in ; 
to leave the oil in the vessel for some time, and then to mea- 
sure again the depth of the oil. 

H said, "I would weigh the Wedgwood's ware vessel ; 

then pour oil into it (them) again ; then I would leave the 
oil in the vessel for some time, and afterwards 1 would pour 
out the oil, and would weigh the vessel to see if it had gained 
any weight ; and then weigh the oil to find out whether it 

had lost any weight since it was put into the vessel." H 's 

scheme was approved. 

A black Wedgwood's ware salt-cellar was weighed in ac- 
curate scales; it weighed 1196 grains; 110 grains of oil 
were poured into it ; total weight of the salt-cellar and oil, 
1306 grs. Six months afterwards the salt-cellar was produ- 
ced to the children, who were astonished to perceive that the 
oil had disappeared. The lady, who had first asserted that 
Wedgwood's ware would not hold oil, was inclined to be- 
lieve that the oil had oozed through the pores of the salt- 
cellar ; but the little spectators thought it was more probable 
that the oil might have been accidentally spilled ; the salt- 
cellar weighed as before 1196 grains. 

The experiment was repeated, and this time it was resolv- 
ed to lock up the salt-cellar, that it might not again be thrown 
down. 

(April 14th, 1796.) Into the same salt-cellar 100 grains 
weight of oil was poured (total weight 1296 grains.) The 
salt-cellar was put on a saucer, and covered with a glass tum- 
bler. (June 3d, 1796.) Mr. weighed the salt-cellar, and 

found that with the oil it weighed precisely the same as be- 
fore, 1296 grains ; without the oil, 1196 grains, its original 
weight : therefore it was clear that the Wedgwood's ware had 
neither imbibed the oil, nor let it pass through its pores. 

This little experiment has not been thus minutely told for 
philosophers, but for children ; however trivial the subject, it 
is useful to teach children early to try experiments. Even 
the weighing and calculating in this experiment, amused 
them, and gave some ideas of the exactness necessary to 
prove any fact. 

(Dec. 1st, 1795.) S- (8 years old) in reading Gay's 

*able of " the painter who pleased every body and nobody 3 " 



APPENDIX. 461 

was delighted to hear that the painter put his pallet upon his 

thumb, because S had seen a little pallet of his sister 

A 's, which she used to put on her thumb. S had 

been much amused by this, and he was very fond of this sis- 
ter, who had been absent for some time. Association makes 
slight circumstances agreeable to children ; if w T e do not 
know these associations, we are surprised at their expressions 
of delight. It is useful to trace them. (Vide Chapter on 
Imagination.) 

S seemed puzzled when he read that the painter 

" dipped his pencil, talked of Greece" " Why did he talk of 

Greece ?" said S with a look of astonishment. Upon 

inquiry, it was found that S mistook the word Greece for 

Grease ! 

It was explained to him, that Grecian statues and Grecian 
figures are generally thought to be particularly graceful and 
well executed ; that, therefore, painters attend to them. 

(Dec. 1st, 1795.) After dinner to-day, S was looking 

at a little black toothpick-case of his father's ; his father 
asked him if he knew what it was made of. 

The children guessed different things ; wood, horn, bone, 
paper, pasteboard, glue. 

Mr. . " Instead of examining the toothpick case, 

S— , you hold it in your hand, and turn your eyes away 

from it, that you may think the better. Now, when I want 
to find out any thing about a particular object, I keep my eye 
fixed upon it. Observe the texture of that toothpick-case, if 
you want to know the materials of which it is made ; look at 
the edges, feel it. 

S " May I smell it ?" 

Mr. . " Oh yes. You may use all your senses." 

S (feeling the toothpick-case, smelling it, and looking 

closely at it.) " It is black, and smooth, and strong and 
light. What is, let me see, both strong and light, and it will 
bend — parchment." 

Mr. . " That is a good guess ; but you are not quite 

right yet. What is parchment ? I think by your look that 
you don't know." 

S . " Is it not paper pasted together ?" 

Mr. . " No ; I thought you mistook pasteboard for 

parchment." 

S . " Is parchment skin ?" 

Mr . " Of what ?" 

S " Animals." 

Mr. . " What animal ?" 

£ " I don't know." 

Mr. — — . " Parchment is the skin of sheep." 



462 I'UACTICAL EDUCATION. 

" But S — — , don't keep the toothpick-case in your hand, 
push it round the table to your neighbours, that every body 
may look again before they guess. I think, for certain rea- 
sons of my own, that H will guess right." 

H . " Oh I know what it is now !" 

H had lately made a pump, the piston of which was 

made of leather ; the leather had been wetted, and then 

forced through a mould of the proper size. H recollected 

this, as Mr. thought he would, and guessed that the 

case might have been made of leather, and by a similar 
process. 

S . " Is it made of the skin of some animal ?" 

Mr. — . " Yes ; but what do you mean by the skin of 

some animal ? What do you call it ?" 

S (laughing.) " Oh, leather ! leather !" 

H . " Yes, it's made in the same way that the piston 

of my pump is made, I suppose." 

M . " Could not shoes be made in the same manner 

in a mould ?" 

■ Mr. . " Yes ; but there would be one disadvantage ; 

the shoes would lose their shape as soon as they were wet ; 
and the sole and upper leather must be nearly of the same 
thickness." 

S . " Is the toothpick-case made out of any particular 

kind of leather ? I wish I could make one !" 

M . " You have a bit of green leather, will you give 

it to me ? I'll punch it out like ffl s piston ; but I don't exactly 
know how the toothpick-case was made into the right shape." 

Mr. . " It was made in the same manner in which sil- 
ver pencil-cases and thimbles are made. If you take a thin 
piece of silver, or of any ductile material, and lay it over a 
concave mould, you can readily imagine that you can make 
the thin, ductile material take the shape of any mould into 
which you put it ; and you may go on forcing it into moulds 
of different depths, till at last the plate of silver will have 
been shaped into a cylindrical form ; a thimble, a pencil-case, 
a toothpick-case, or any similar figure." 

We have observed (V. Mechanics) that children should 
have some general idea of mechanics before they go into the 
the large manufactories ; this can be given to them from time 
to time in conversation, when little circumstances occur, 
which naturally lead to the subject. 

(November 30th, 1795.) S said he liked the beginning 

of Gay's fable of " The man and the flea," very much, but 
he could not tell what was meant by the crab's crawling be- 
side the coral grove, and hearing the ocean roll above. " The 
ocean cannot roll above, can it, mother ?" 

Mother. " Yes, when the animal is crawling below he 
hears the water rolling above him." 



APPENDIX. 463 

M . " Coral groves mean the branches of coral which 

look like trees ; you saw some at Bristol in Mr. B 's col- 
lection." 

The difficulty S found in understanding " coral groves," 

confirms what has been observed, that children should never 
read poetry without its being thoroughly explained to them. 
(Vide Chapter on Books.) 

(January 10th, 1795.) 5 (8 years old) said that he 

had been thinking about the wind ; and he believed that it 
was the earth's turning round that made the wind. 

M . " Then how comes it that the wind does not blow 

always the same way ?" 

S . " Aye, that's the thing I can't make out ; besides, 

perhaps the air would stick to the earth as it turns round, as 
threads stick to my spinning top, and go round with it." 

(January 4th. 1795.) As we were talking of the king of Po- 
land's little dwarf, S recollected by contrast the Irish 

giant whom he had seen at Bristol. " I liked the Irish giant 

very much, because," said S , " though he was so large, 

he was not surly ; and when my father asked him to take 
out his shoe-buckle to try whether it would cover my foot, he 
did not seem in a hurry to do it. I suppose he did not wish 
to show how little I was." 

Children are nice observers of that kind of politeness 
which arises from good nature ; they may hence learn what 
really pleases in manners, without being taught grimace. 

Dwarfs and giants led us to Gulliver's Travels. S had 

never read them, but one of the company now gave him 
some general account of Lilliput and Brobdignag. He thought 
the account of the little people more entertaining than that of 
the large ones ; the carriage of Gulliver's hat by a team of 
Lilliputian horses, diverted him ; but, when he was told that 
the queen of Brobdignag's dwarf stuck Gulliver one day at 

dinner into a marrow bone, S looked grave, and seemed 

rather shocked than amused ; he said, " It must have almost 
suffocated poor Gulliver, and must have spoiled his clothes." 

S wondered of what cloth they could make him new 

clothes, because the cloth in Brobdignag must have been too 
thick, and as thick as a board. He also wished to know what 
sort of glass was used to glaze the windows in Gulliver's 
wooden house : " because," said he, " their common glass 
must have been so thick that it would not have been transpa- 
rent to Gulliver." He thought that Gulliver must have been 
extremely afraid of setting his small wooden house on fire. 

M . " Why more afraid than we are 1 his house was 

as large for Gulliver as our house is for us," 

£ . " Yes, but what makes the fire must have been so 

much larger ! One cinder, one spark of theirs would have fill- 
ed his little grate. And how did he do to read their books ?" 



464 PJ&ACTXCAl. EDUCATION. 

S was told that Gulliver stood at the topmost line of 

the page, and ran along as fast as he read, till he got to the 
bottom of the page. It was suggested, that Gulliver might 
have used a diminishing glass. S immediately exclaim- 
ed, " How entertaining it must have been to him to look 
through their telescopes." An instance of invention arising 
from contrast. 

If the conversation had not here been interrupted, S 

would probably have invented a greater variety of pleasures 
and difficulties for Gulliver ; his eagerness to read Gulliver's 
Travels, was increased by this conversation. We should let 
children exercise their invention upon all subjects, and not tell 
them the whole of every thing, and all the ingenious parts of 
a story. Sometimes they invent these, and are then interest- 
ed to see how the real author has managed them. Thus 
children's love for literature may be increased, and the activ- 
ity of their minds may be exercised. " Le secret d'ennuyer-," 
says an author* who never tires us, " Le secret d'ennuyer est 
celui de tout dire." This may be applied to the art of edu- 
cation. (V. Attention, Memory, and Invention.) 

(January 17th, 1796.) S , " I don't understand about 

the tides." 

H (13 years old.) "The moon, when it comes near 

the earth, draws up the sea by the middle ; attracts it, and as 
the middle rises, the water runs down from that again into the 
channels of rivers." 

S . " But — Hum ! — the moon attracts the sea ; but 

why does not the sun attract it by the middle as well as the 
moon ? How can you be sure that it is the moon that does it ?" 

Mr. . " We are not sure that the moon is the cause 

of tides." 

We should never force any system upon the belief of chil- 
dren ; but wait till they can understand all the arguments on 
each side of the question. 

(January 18th, 1796.) S (9 years old.) " Father, I 

have thought of a reason for the wind's blowing." 

When there has been a hot sunshiny day, and when the 
ground has been wet, the sun attracts a great deal of vapour : 
then that vapour murft have room, so it must push away some 
air to make room for itself ; besides, vapour swells with heat, 
so it must have a great, great deal of room as it grows hotter, 
and hotter ; and the moving the air to make way for it, must 
make wind." 

It is probable, that if children are not early taught by rote 
words which they cannot understand, they will think for them- 
selves ; and, however strange their incipient theories may ap- 

* Voltaire. 



APPENDIX. 465 

pear, there is hope for the improvement of children as long 
as their minds are active. 

(February 13th, 1796.) S . " How do physicians try 

new medicines? If they are not sure they will succeed, they 
may be hanged for murder, mayn't they ? It is cruel to try 
them (them meant medicines) on animals ; besides, all animals 
are not the same as men. A pig's inside is the most like that 
of a man. I remember my father showed us the inside of a 
pig once." 

Some time afterwards, S inquired what was meant by 

the circulation of the blood. " How are we sure that it does 
move ? You told me that it doesn't move after we die, then 
nobody can have seen it really moving in the veins ; that 
beating that I feel in my pulse does not feel like any thing run- 
ning backwards and forwards ; it beats up and down." 

The lady to whom S addressed these questions and 

observations, unfortunately could not give him any informa- 
tion upon this subject, but she had at least the prudence, or 
honesty, to tell the boy that l ' she did not know any thing 
about the matter." 

S should have been shown the circulation of the blood 

in fishes : which he might have seen by a microscope. 

Children's minds turn to such inquiries ; surely, if they are 
intended for physicians, these are the moments to give them 
a taste for their future profession, by associating pleasure with 
instruction, and connecting with the eagerness of curiosity 
the hope of making discoveries ; a hope which all vivacious 
young people strongly feel. 

(February 16th.) S objected to that fable of Phasdrus 

in which it is said, that a boy threw a stone at iEsop, and that 
iEsop told the boy to throw a stone at another passenger, 
pointing to a rich man. The boy did as iEsop desired, and 
the rich man had the boy hanged. 

S said, that he thought that iEsop should have been 

hanged, because iEsop was the cause of the boy's fault. 

How little suited political fables are to children. This fable, 
which was meant to show, we suppose, that the rich could not, 
like the poor, be insulted with impunity, was quite unintelligi- 
ble to a boy (nine years old) of simple understanding. 

(July 1 9th, 1 796.) Amongst " Vulgar errors? Sir Thomas 
Browne might have mentioned the common notion, that if you 
take a hen and hold her head down to the ground, and draw 
a circle of chalk round her, she will be enchanted by this 
magical operation so that she cannot stir. We determined to 
try the experiment, for which Dr. Johnson would have laugh- 
ed at us, as he laughed at Browne* for trying " the hopeless 
experiment" about the magnetic dials. 

* V. Johnson's Life of Browne, 
59 



466 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

A hen's head was held down upon a stone flag, and a chalk 
line was drawn before her ; she did not move. The same 
hen was put into a circle of chalk that had been previously 
drawn for her reception ; her head was held down according 
to the letter of the charm, and she did not move ; line or cir- 
cle apparently operated alike. It was suggested (by A ) 

that perhaps the hen was frightened by her head's being held 
down to the ground, and that the chalk line and circle had 
nothing to do with the business. The hen was carried out of 
sight of the magic line and circle, her head was held down to 
the ground as before ; and when the person who had held 
her, gently withdrew his hand, she did not move. She did 
not for some instants recover from her terror ; or, perhaps, 
the feeling of pressure seemed to her to remain upon her head 
after the hand was withdrawn. 

Children who are accustomed to doubt, and to try experi- 
ments, will not be dupes to " Vulgar errors." 

(July 20th, 1796.) S (between 9 and 10,) when he 

heard a lady propose to make use of a small glass tumbler to 
hold pomatum, made a face expressive of great disgust ; he 

was begged to give a reason for his dislike. S said it 

appeared to him dirty and disagreeable to put pomatum into 
a tumbler out of which we are used to drink wine or water. 

We have observed, (V. Chapter on Taste and Imag- 
ination) that children may early be led to reflect upon the 
cause of their tastes. 

(July 24th, 1796.) S observed, that "the lachrymal 

sack is like Aboulcasem's cup, (in the Persian tales.) It is 
emptied and fills again of itself; though it is emptied ever so 
often, it continues full." 

The power of reasoning had been more cultivated in S 

than the taste for wit or allusion 3 yet it seems his mind was 
not defective in that quickness of seizing resemblances which 
may lead to wit. He was not praised for the lachrymal sack, 
and Aboulcasem's cup. (V. Chap, on Wit and Judgment.) 

(August 3d, 1796.) C (11 years old) after she had 

heard a description of a fire engine, said " I want to read the 
description of the fire engine over again, for whilst my father 
was describing one particular part, I recollected something 
that I had heard before, and that took my attention quite 
away from what he was saying. Very often when I am list- 
ening, something that is said puts me in mind of something, 
and then I go on thinking of that, and I cannot hear what is 
said any longer." 

Preceptors should listen to the observations that their pupils 

make upon their minds ; this remark of C suggested to us 

some ideas that have been detailed in the " Chapter on At- 
tention," 



APPENDIX. 467 

(August 1st, 1796.) S , who had been translating some 

of Ovid's Metamorphoses to his father, exclaimed, " I hate 
those ancient gods and goddesses, they are so wicked ! 1 wish 
I was Perseus, and had his shield, 1 would fly up to heaven 
and turn Jupiter, and Apollo, and Venus into stone ; then 
they would be too heavy to stay in heaven, and they would 
tumble down to earth ; and then they would be stone statues, 
and we should have much finer statues of Apollo and Venus 
than any they have now at Rome." 

(September 10th, 1 796.) S (within a month of 10 years 

old) read to his sister M part of Dr. Darwin's chapter 

upon instinct; that part in which there is an account of young 
birds who learn to sing from the birds who take care of them, 

not from their parents. S immediately recollected a 

story which he had read last winter in the Annual Register. 
(Extract from Harrington's Remarks upon singing Birds.) 
" There was a silly boy once (you know, sister, boys are silly 
sometimes) who used to play in a room where his mother had 
a nightingale in a cage, and the boy took out of the cage the 
nightingale's eggs, and put in some other bird's eggs (a swal- 
low's, I think) and the nightingale hatched them, and when 
the swallows grew up they sang like nightingales." When 

S had done reading, he looked at the title of the book. 

He had often heard his father speak of Zoonomia, and he 
knew that Dr Darwin was the author of it." 

»S . ." Oh ho ! Zoonomia ! Dr. Darwin wrote it; it is 

very entertaining : my father told me that when I read Zoo- 
nomia, I should know the reason why I stretch myself when 
I am tired. But, sister, there is one thing I read about the 
cuckoo that I did not quite understand. May I look at it 
again ?" He read the following passage. 

" For a hen teaches this language with ease to the duck- 
lings she has hatched from supposititious eggs, and educates 
as her own offspring; and the wag-tails or hedge-sparrows 
learn it from the young cuckoo, their foster nursling, and sup- 
ply him with his food long after he can fly about, whenever 
they hear his cuckooing, which Linnaeus tells us is his call of 
hunger." 

S— — asked what Dr. Darwin meant by " learns it." 

M . " Learns a language." 

S . " What does foster nursling mean ?." 

M . " It here means a bird that is nursed along with 

another, but that has not the same parents." 

S . " Then, does it not mean that the sparrows learn 

from their foster sister, the cuckoo, to say Cuckoo !" 

M . " No ; the sparrow don't learn to say cuckoo, but 

they learn to understand what he means by that cry ; that he 
is hungry." 



468 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

S — — . " Well, but then I think this is a proof against 
what Dr. Darwin means about instinct." 

M . " Why ? How ?" 

S . "Because the young cuckoo does say cuckoo! 

without being taught, it does not learn from the sparrows. 
How comes it to say cuckoo at all, if it is not by instinct ? It 
does not see its own father and mother." 

We give this conversation as a proof that our young pupils 
were accustomed to think about every thing that they read. 

(Nov. 8th, 1796.) The following are the " Curiosities of 
Literature" which were promised to the reader in the chapter 
upon Grammar and Classical literature. 

Translation from Ovid. The Cave of Sleep, first edition. 

" No watchful cock Aurora's beams invite ; 
No dog nor goose, the guardians of the night." 

Dog and goose were objected to, and the young author 
changed them into dogs and geese. 

" No herds nor flocks, nor human voice is heard ) 
But nigh the cave a rustling cpring appear'd." 

When this line was read to S , he changed the epithet 

rustling into gliding. 

" And with soft murmurs faithless sleep invites, 
And there the flying past again delights ; 
And near the door the noxious poppy grows, 
And spreads his sleepy milk at daylight's close." 

S was now requested to translate the beginning of the 

sentence, and he produced these lines : 

" Far from the sun there lies a cave forlorn, 
Which Sol's bright beams can't enter eve nor morn." 

Can't was objected to. Mr. asked S what was 

the literal English. S first said not, and then nor ; and 

he corrected his line, and made it 

" Which Sol's bright beams nor visit eve nor morn." 

Afterwards : 

" Far in a vale there lies a cave forlorn, 
Which Phoebus never enters eve nor morn." 

After an interval of a few days, the lines were all read to 
the boy, to try whether he could farther correct them ; he 
desired to have the two following lines left out : 

" No herds, nor flocks, nor human voice is heard, 
But nigh the cave a gliding spring appear'd." 

And in the place of them he wrote, 

" No flocks nor herds disturb the silent plains : 
Within the sacred walls mute quiet reigns." 

Instead of the two following : 

" And with soft murmurs faithless sleep invites, 
And there the flying past again delights." 



APPENDIX. 469 

S desired his secretary to write, 

" But murmuring Lethe soothing sleep invites, 
In dreams again the flying past delights," 

Instead of, 

" And near the doors the noxious poppy grows, 
And spreads his sleepy milk at daylight's close," 

the following lines were written. S did not say doors, 

because he thought the cave had no doors ; yet his Latin he 
said, spoke of squeaking hinges. 

" From milky flowers that near the cavern grow, 
Night scatters the collected sleep below." 

We shall not make any further apology for inserting all 
these corrections, because we have already sufficiently ex- 
plained our motives. (V. Chapter on Grammar and Classic- 
al Literature.) 

(February, 1797.) A little theatre was put up for the chil- 
dren, and they acted " Justice Poz."* When the scenes were 

pulled down afterwards, S was extremely sorry to see 

the whole theatre vanish ; he had succeeded as an actor, and 
he wished to have another play acted. His father did not 
wish that he should become ambitious of excelling in this way 
at ten years old, because it might have turned his attention 
away from things of more consequence ; and, if he had been 
much applauded for this talent, he would, perhaps, have been 
over-stimulated. (V. Chapter on Vanity and Ambition.) 

The way to turn this boy's mind away from its present pur- 
suit, was to give him another object, not to blame or check 
him for the natural expression of his wishes. It is difficult to 
find objects for children who have not cultivated a taste for 
literature ; but infinite variety can be found for those who 
have acquired this happy taste. 

Soon after S — — had expressed his ardent wish to have 
another play performed, the trial of some poor man in the 
neighbourhood happened to be mentioned ; and it was said, 
that the criminal had the choice of either going to Botany 
Bay, or being hanged. 

S asked how that could be. " I did'nt think," said he, 

" that a man could have two punishments. Can the judge 
change the punishment? I thought it was fixed by the law." 

Mr. told S that these were sensible questions ; 

and, as he saw that the boy's attention was fixed, he seized 
the opportunity to give him some general idea upon the sub- 
ject. He began with telling S the manner in which a 

suspected person is brought before a justice of the peace. 
A warrant and committal were described ; then the manner 
of trying criminals ; what is called the court, the jury, &c. 
the crier of the court, and the forms of a trial ; the reason 

* Parent's Assistant. 



470 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 

why the prisoner, when he is asked how he will be tried, an- 
swers, " By God and my country :" this led to an account of 
the old absurd fire and water ordeals, and thence the advan- 
tages of a trial by jury became more apparent by compar- 
ison. Mr. told S why it is called empannelling a 

jury, and why the jury are called a pannel ; the manner in 
which the jury give their verdict ; the duty of the judge, to 
sum up the evidence, to explain the law to the jury. " The 
judge is, by the humane laws of England, always supposed to 

be the protector of the accused ; and now, S , we are 

come round to your question ; the judge cannot make the 
punishment more severe ; but when the punishment is fine or 
imprisonment, the quantity or duration of the punishment is 
left to his judgment. The king may remit the punishment 
entirely ; he may pardon the criminal ; he may, if a man be 
sentenced to be hanged, give him his choice, whether he will 
be hanged or transported" — (the word was explained.) 

" But," said S , " since the judge cannot change, the pun- 
ishment, why may the king? I think it is very unjust that the 
king should have such a power, because, if he changes the 
punishment for one thing, why mayn't he for another and 
another, and so on ?'-' 

Mr. . " I am inclined to believe, my dear S , that 

it is for the good of a state, that a king should have such a 
power; but I am not sure. If any individual should have 
this power, I think it is most safely trusted to a king; because, 
as he has no connexion with the individuals who are tried, as 
he does not live amongst them, he is not so liable as judges 
and jurymen might be to be prejudiced, to be influenced by 
personal revenge, friendship, or pity. When he pardons, he 
is supposed to pardon without any personal motives. But of 

all this, S , you will judge for yourself, when you study 

the law. I intend to take you with me to next as- 
sizes to hear a trial." 

S looked full as eager to hear a trial, as he had done, 

half an hour before, to act a play. We should mention, that 
in the little play in which he had acted, he had played the 
part of a justice of the peace, and a sort of trial formed the 
business of the play ; the ideas of trials and law, therefore 
joined readily with his former train of thought. Much of the 
success of education, depends upon the preceptor's seizing 
these slight connexions. It is scarcely possible to explain 
this fully in writing. 

(February 25th, 1797.) S was reading in " Evenings 

at Home," the story of " A friend in need, is a friend indeed." 

" Mr. G. Cornish, having raised a moderate fortune, and 
being now beyond the meridian of life, he felt a strong desire 
of returning to his native country." 



APPENDIX. 471 

S . " How much better that is, than to say he felt an 

irresistible desire, or an insupportable desire, as people some- 
times say in books." 

Our pupils were always permitted to stop when they were 
reading loud, to make whatever remarks they pleased upon 
whatever books they read. They did not, by this method, 
get through so many books as other children of their age us- 
ually do ; but their taste for reading seemed to increase rap- 
idly. (V. Books.) 

(March 8th, 1 797.) H (14) told us that he remembered 

seeing, when he was 5 years old, some puppets packed up by 
a showman in a triangular box ; " and for some time after- 
wards," said H , " when I saw my father's triangular hat- 
box, I expected puppets to come out of it. A few days ago, 
I met a man with a triangular box upon his head, and I 
thought that there were puppets in the box." 

We have taken notice of this propensity in children, to be- 
lieve that particular, are general causes ; and we have en- 
deavoured to show how it affects the temper, and the habits 
of reasoning. (V. Temper, and Wit and Judgment.) 

(March 27th,1797.) Mr showed little W (3 years 

old) a watch, and asked him if he thought that it was alive. 

W . " Yes." 

Mr. . " Do vou think that the fire is alive ?" 

W . " Yes."" 

Mr. (The child was standing at the tea table.) " D» 

vou think the urn is alive ?" 

W . "No." 

Mr. . " Do you think that book is alive ?" 

W . " No." 

Mr. . " The horses ?" 

W . "Yes." 

Mr. . " Do you think that the chaise is alive ?" 

W , "Yes." Then, after looking in Mr. 's face, 

he changed his opinion, and said no. 

W did not seem to know what was meant by the word 

alive. 

Mr. called H.(5 years old) and asked her whether she 

thought that the watch was alive. She at first said Yes ; but, 
as soon as she had time to recollect herself, she said that the 
watch was not alive. 

This^ question was asked, to try whether Reid was right in 
his conjecture as to the answers a child would give to such a 
question. ( V.Reid's Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man.) 

We frequently say, that flowers, &c. are dead : we should 
explain to children that there are two kinds of life ; or rath- 
er, that the word life is used to express two ideas ; vegetable 
life, and animal life. 

(July, 1 797.) Miss Louisa told us, that whejn a rose-bud 

begins to wither, if you burn the end of the stalk, and plunge 






472 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



it red hot into water, the rose will be found revived the next 
day ; and by a repetition of this burning, the lives of flowers 

may be fortunately prolonged many days. Miss Louisa 

had seen many surprising recoveries performed by this ope- 
ration, and several of her friends had adopted the practice 
with uniform success. 

We determined to repeat the experiment. Children should 
never take any thing upon trust which they can verify. Two 
roses, gathered at the same time, from the same tree, were pu 
into separate glasses of water. The stalk of one of these roses 
was burnt, according to prescription ; they were left a night in 
water, and the next day the rose that had been burnt, appeared 
in much better health than that which had not been burnt. 
The experiment was afterwards several times repeated ; and 
should be tried by others until the fact be fully ascertained. 

(July,1797.) Little W (3 years old) was shown Miss 

B 's beautiful copy of the Aurora surgens of Guido. The 

car of Apollo is encircled by the dancing hours, so that its 
shape is not seen ; part of one wheel only is visible between 

the robes of the dancing figures. We asked little W why 

that man (pointing to the figure of Apollo in his invisible gar) 
looked so much higher up in the air than the other peopfe? 

W . " Because he is in a carriage ; he is sitting in a car- 
riage." 

We pointed to the imperfect wheel, and asked if he knew 
what that was ? He immediately answered, " Yes, the wheel 
of the carriage." We wanted to see whether the imagination 
of a child of three years old, would supply the invisible parts 
of the car : and whether the wheel and horses, and man hold- 
ing the reins, would suggest the idea of a phaeton. (V. Chap-^ 
ter on Taste and Imagination.) 

We shall not trespass upon the reader's patience with any 
more anecdotes from the nursery. We hope, that candid and 
intelligent parents will pardon, if they have discovered any 
desire in us to exhibit our pupils. We may mistake our own 
motives, and we do not pretend to be perfectly impartial judg- 
es upon this occasion ; but we have hoped, that only such con- 
versations or anecdotes have been produced, as may be of 
some use in Practical Education. From conversation, if pro- 
perly managed, children may learn with ease, expedition, and 
delight, a variety of knowledge ; and a skilful preceptor can 
apply in conversation all the m.-incipjg a. that we have labori- 
ously endeavoured to nj^fe^^mteUjiMe^^'^. 



